Single Review: Jamie O’Neal – ‘Like A Woman’

Just in case some people don’t remember Jamie O’Neal, she debuted with the two number 1 singles “There Is No Arizona” and “When I Think About Angels” from her debut album Shiver in 2000. Then she had a sharp drop-off with her next singles, coupled with label troubles with Mercury Nashville, which caused her to exit the label after her second album was never released.

Then Jamie returned on Capitol’s roster and released a new album titled Brave and had 3 sucessful singles, most notably “Somebody’s Hero” which reached #3 on the charts. Then in 2007, she released another failed single (“God Don’t Make Mistakes”), another failed album, another label exit. Now, in 2008, she has signed to 1720 Entertainment, an indie label that includes Rissi Palmer. Now she has a new single and a new album on the way! Cue in “Like A Woman”.

Now I decided to review this single after I noticed that none of the other blogs I read have reviewed it, so here I am!

Now first I would like to say I do like this song, but it’s just not what Jamie needs to restart her career. Starting out it has mostly piano and strings with very little country elements besides a little steel guitar floating around, so this song is firmly in the country-pop category. The premise of the song is a wife who wants to rekindle the flame with her husband saying “tonight I want to feel like a woman.” The lyrics are fairly nondescript, with some cliches and the usual images and metaphors that go with this king of song. In other words, the lyrics are nothing special, but they aren’t bad, just boring.

From that, the song doesn’t sound special, right? However, Jamie has a put out a great vocal performance, especially during the sweeping chorus that has a great melody. She hits the great notes of the chorus with the power necessary, but she’s not screaming at all, just singing. Her vocals have the emotion that you can tell she really wants to feel her man’s love again, and you really believe her.

All in all, this song is good, but not great. Unfortunately, it’s not what Jamie needs right now. She needs a home run song, and this song just isn’t it: it reminds me of a song an artist puts out when they know it’ll be a hit even if it’s not top-notch. It’s good, but not good enough to bring her career back to how it started, which is why it’s hovering in the mid 50′s on the charts right now. I hope it goes higher, but I don’t know if it will at all, especially with all the Christmas songs clogging the lower half of the charts right now.

With her vocals though, I think her upcoming album will be great, assuming it gets released and she stays on the label. Knowing her track record so far, who knows if the album will come out at all, but I really hope it does!

Grade: B-

Listen to Jamie O’Neal – Like A Woman on Last FM.

But are they any good?

This review by the fabulous Jim Malec over at the9513 and the ensuing comments got me to thinking about how patriotic songs are received by the general listening public. There is of course that portion of the population who are going to love anything mildly patriotic and pull the little flag out of their back pocket and begin waving it to the beat. Kudos to them. On the opposite side of that, we have listeners who have been disenchanted with the American machine and are going to immediately despise and dismiss these songs. Then, there more sensible music listeners who will listen intenly to the song and then decide whether it’s good or bad. Simple enough, right?

And I think there are some songs that have gotten it right over the years. Someone pointed out Waylon Jennings’ ‘America’, and I think that’s a fine choice – and here’s why: Unlike the laundry list of items in the Atkins tune, Jennings actually has something to say about America and why he loves it.

And my brothers are all black and white, yellow too
And the red man is right, to expect a little from you
Promise and then follow through, America

And the men, who fell on the plains
And lived, through hardship and pain
America, America
And the men who could not fight
In a war that didn’t seem right
You let them come home, America

It just sounds like more thought went into those lyrics than:

Cause it’s a kid with a chance
It’s a rock n roll band
It’s a farmer cuttin’ hay

Are you a fan of patriotic songs? Why or why not? And what flag-waving songs do you think got it right?

Listen to Waylon Jennings -  America on Last FM.