LeAnn Rimes
Is the best country singer ever! I don't even care for country, but this song just rules all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uokpxej2_UY&feature=related
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Steve Hoffman Music Forums
Since she recorded at the start of the CD loudness wars, very few of her CDs are really good sounding due to the loud compression in the mastering and/or mixing, although "Unchained Melody: The Early Years," "Blue" and "You Light Up My Life" are decent sounding. Lots of the tracks from "Unchained Melody" are tracks she recorded before she signed with Curb and then Curb bought the rights to those recordings and issued them for the general market.

I really like LeAnn Rimes myself. I loved her last album, "This Woman". That wasn't as badly affected by the loudness wars as her most recent album. Lots of great music and songwriting on that.

"Family" is a decent album too, with that oh-so-catchy "Nothing Better to Do". I just wish it wasn't run through processing gear that was set on stun. I really don't understand it... why the hell would someone make her album sound so crappy? I mean, it actually makes her voice sound worse. Its rediculous. Steve needs to remaster this for vinyl.

Yeah it was a bold statement. It's just shocking to compare her to say Faith Hill, or any recent female country singer. You have to go all the way back to Cline for worthy candidates.

Not even close though?????????????

The critical comparisons to Patsy Cline in the posts above are ironic. When Rimes first burst onto the music scene Cline was the one person she was always favourably compared to, in the highest compilmentary terms possible, especially by Nashville veterans.

As for Cline herself - I don't adhere to the superlatives usually reserved for her (for which I think the mythology of her life and death are partly responsible rather that just her singing ability), but that may be due to the fact I am not Owen Bradley's biggest fan. Not only do I not like most of his production values and arrangments on her records, I find many of her records just not that interesting - despite her vocals. Unfortunately, prior to her involvement with Bradley and her Decca contract, Cline did not record a lot of quality material.

She is very talented. It's a shame that she has succumbed to the "thin-is-in" mentality of Hollywood. Also, the fallout from her affair with Eddie Cibrian seems to have had a bit of a negative effect on her career, at least in North America it has.