LeAnn Rimes at Colston Hall - Bristol Live Music Review
Posted on: 2017-02-20
Our rating:
Following the October 2016 release of her latest album Remnants, Rimes hit the stage to give her fans a taste of this new material as well as belting out a few of her classics. The new album has been widely applauded by critics.
Internationally acclaimed singer LeAnn Rimes brought her UK tour to Bristol’s Colston hall on 16th February. Having risen to prominence aged 13 she has since become a powerful force within Country music, selling more than 44 million albums worldwide and becoming the youngest recipient of a Grammy award.
Famed for her powerful ballad How Do I Live and the theme song Can’t Fight the Moonlight from the hit chick flick Coyote Ugly, these are merely a drop in the ocean when you consider her back catalogue of eleven studio albums, three compilation albums and two greatest hits albums over the last 20 years.
During her lengthy career she has weathered many a storm professionally and personally and this is an older and far more confident woman who seems to have broken away from her country roots to deliver an album that is far more rock and pop than expected. The titular track, Remnants, is a strong and feisty number and Love is Love is Love a catchy and commanding call for LGBT equality. A highlight from this new album is the beautiful and thought-provoking Learning Your Language, a musical exploration of dealing with insecurities in order to get the most from a romantic relationship.
As always Rimes tells a beautiful lyrical story in these songs that she co-wrote and they showed off her powerful truly amazing voice to the utmost but I couldn’t help feeling that there was something lacking; some of the old magic and energy had gone, replaced by a kind of weary cynicism and desperation to prove endurance against the odds.
The tried and tested old numbers that we all know and love didn’t feel right; remixed, re-mastered and changed so they were barely recognisable as the songs that made her. I couldn’t help but feel that rather than being for the audience this was really a concert for LeAnn, a self-indulgent attempt to show that she is so much more. She is no longer a 13 year old Country singer but an edgy 30 year old woman of substance who with each song frantically tried to ram home the message that she has been through the darkest of times and lived to see the tale; for me at least it just didn’t really work.
That said, the audience of die-hard fans seemed to be having fun, though her attempts to get them up and dancing resulted in just a couple of people standing and jigging around awkwardly! This was a slightly disjointed performance, based on a directionless album and unfortunately Rimes did not really connect with the audience until right at the end where her lively medley of ‘I’m Every Woman, Waterfalls and Get Lucky’, followed by a soaring encore version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, really energised the crowd.
A strong vocal performance and some stirring sentimental storytelling meant that this was a reasonably entertaining evening but one that sadly failed to hit the high notes.
3/5
Article by:
Sarah-Jane is an aficionado of film, theatre, culture and the arts. A voracious reader and avid crafter, she can be found volunteering her face painting talents at Bristol Zoo when she's not cementing her reputation as Coalpit Heath’s cake maker extraordinaire. Known to have an opinion on everything she’s never happier than when sharing these with the good folk of Bristol!
