Family

FamilyStudio album by LeAnn Rimes
General information
Release Date	October 9, 2007
Recorded	2006-2007
Length	57:07
Label	Curb
Producer(s)	Dann Huff, Tony Brown, Reba McEntire
Chronology
Previous	Whatever We Wanna
Current	Family
Next	Best Sellers, Best Price

Family is the ninth studio album by American country recording artist LeAnn Rimes, released October 9, 2007, by Curb Records in the United States. It was produced primarily by musician and record producer Dann Huff, with additional production by Tony Brown and guest vocalist Reba McEntire.

Family is the first album in Rimes' career where she has co-written every song for an album.

The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 74,200 copies in its first week. Upon its release, Family received positive reviews from most music critics, who complimented Rimes' performance and songwriting. It earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, for the album's lead single "Nothin' Better to Do".

"Nothin' Better to Do" and the title track were used in the movie Good Intentions.

Singles

The first single, "Nothin' Better to Do", was released to radio on May 29, 2007 which she was nominated for a Best Female Country Vocal Performance Grammy for the 50th Grammy Awards, followed by "Good Friend and a Glass of Wine" and "What I Cannot Change", which was nominated for a Best Female Country Vocal Performance Grammy for the 51st Grammy Awards and went to number one on the Billboard Dance chart.

Reception

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 chart, with first-week sales of 74,200 copies in the United States. It spent a total of twenty weeks on the Billboard 200.

In the United Kingdom, Family debuted at number thirty-one on the UK Albums Chart, becoming Rimes's first album to miss the top twenty of the chart (though not all of her albums were released in the UK).

Critical response

Family received positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of a hundred to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of seventy, based on twelve reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Allmusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave it four out of five stars and called it "surprisingly far-ranging underneath its soft country-pop veneer [...] a canny blend of the commercial and the confessional". Blender's Jane Dark complimented its "lighthearted genre-hopping", writing that it "suggests nothing so much as a Broadway smash about a restless country star, borrowing from many styles, beholden to none." Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe praised Rimes' songwriting and dubbed Family "the best, most cogent album of her career". Kelefa Sanneh of The New York Times complimented her "gentle belting-out" and commented that "the music echoes the fearlessness in the lyrics". Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe called Rimes "a distinctive interpretive singer" and viewed that her songwriting gives the album "the kind of focus and thematic coherence that most Nashville acts can't be bothered with". Keefe cited Family as "among the strongest mainstream country albums of the past several years". Ken Tucker of Billboard gave the album a favorable review and said, "It took personal experience for LeAnn Rimes to get to the point where she could write, record and release Family, the sum of a so-far extraordinary but still young life. But just because it's a personal album doesn't mean it doesn't speak to the masses."

However, Q gave the album two out of five stars and stated "There's little spark, despite her admirable willingness to take chances." Entertainment Weekly's Alanna Nash gave it a B rating and commented that "Rimes displays new maturity in songwriting [...] though too often she lapses into posturing power pop". Adam Sweeting of Uncut criticized its music, writing that the songs "sound like an update of the kind of AOR racket Pat Benatar and Heart were making in the '80s". Dave Simpson of The Guardian noted "A slightly too-smooth production and typically overblown Bon Jovi collaboration", but called it "an album full of swaggering rhythm'n'booze and emotional confessionals that explore a dysfunctional childhood". Despite finding the song "uneven", Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield gave the album three-and-a-half out of five stars and cited "Nothin' Better to Do", "Family", and "Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" as highlights. Thomas Kintner of The Hartford Courant called Family "a carefully manicured, but still lively assortment that highlights her substantial vocal strengths", and praised Rimes' singing, stating "She is prone to embracing tunes so disposable that they should be beneath her notice, but the melodic richness she showers on even the most lackluster lyrics makes for interesting listening".

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Family"	Rimes, Dean Sheremet, Blair Daly	3:55
2.	"Nothin' Better to Do"	Rimes, Sheremet, Darrell Brown	4:26
3.	"Fight"	Rimes, Brown, Daly	3:27
4.	"Good Friend and a Glass of Wine"	Rimes, Brown, Daly	3:34
5.	"Something I Can Feel"	Rimes, Brown, Daly	3:43
6.	"I Want You with Me"	Rimes, Sheremet, Daly	3:33
7.	"Doesn't Everybody"	Rimes, Sheremet, Brown	3:53
8.	"Nothing Wrong" (Duet with Marc Broussard)	Rimes, Broussard, Daly	4:22
9.	"Pretty Things"	Rimes, Sheremet, Brown	3:45
10.	"Upper Hand"	Rimes, Brown, Troy Verges	3:51
11.	"One Day Too Long"	Rimes, Sheremet, Brown	3:38
12.	"What I Cannot Change"	Rimes, Brown	5:14

Bonus Tracks
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
13.	"Till We Ain't Strangers Anymore" (Duet with Bon Jovi). (From Bon Jovi's Lost Highway)	Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Brett James	4:48
14.	"When You Love Someone Like That" (Duet with Reba McEntire) (From McEntire's Reba: Duets)	Ed Hill, Karyn Rochelle	4:40

DVD

Bonus promo DVD
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Nothin' Better to Do" (Music video)	Rimes, Sheremet, Brown	4:30

Personnel

Credits for Family adapted from Allmusic.

Musicians

Tim Akers – keyboards, organ, Wurlitzer Jon Bon Jovi – vocals Tom Bukovac – electric guitar John Catchings – cello Eric Darken – percussion Mark Douthit – saxophone Dan Dugmore – steel guitar Paul Franklin – steel guitar Carl Gorodetzky – violin Barry Green – trombone Kenny Greenberg – guitar Mike Haynes – trumpet Rami Jaffee – Hammond organ Charles Judge – keyboards, programming, string arrangements, string conductor, synthesizer Russ Kunkel – drums Tim Lauer – accordion, Casio, Farfisa organ, keyboards, Mellotron, organ, Hammond organ, piano, solina, synthesizer

JayDee Mannes – pedal steel Stuart Mathis – guitar, electric guitar Reba McEntire – vocals, producer Chris McHugh – drums Doug Moffet – baritone saxophone Steve Nathanv – Hammond organ, piano Michael Omartian – horn arrangements Carole Rabinowitz-Neuen – cello LeAnn Rimes – vocals, background vocals Matt Rollings – Hammond organ, piano Pamela Sixfin – violin Leland Sklar – bass Jimmie Lee Sloas – bass Michael Thompson – acoustic guitar, electric guitar Kris Wilkinson – viola Jonathan Yudkin – banjo, fiddle, mandola Marc Broussard - vocals

Production

Derek Bason – engineer Drew Bollman – assistant Tony Brown – producer Mike Butler – engineer Terry Christian – engineer John Coulter – design Richard Dodd – engineer Ben Fowler – engineer Darrell Franklin – A&R Mike "Frog" Griffith – project coordinator Mark Hagen – engineer, overdub engineer Nathaniel Hawkins – hair stylist

Nate Hertweck – assistant Dann Huff – guitar, acoustic guitar, producer Joanna Janét – background vocals Scott Kidd – assistant Steve Marcantonio – mixing David McClister – photography J.C. Monterrosa – assistant John Netti – assistant Justin Niebank – mixing Lowell Reynolds – assistant Troy Surratt – make-up Todd Tidwell – assistant

Charts

Chart positions Chart (2007) Peak position Australian Top Country Albums 20 Canadian Albums Chart 33 European Top 100 Albums 100 Swiss Albums Chart 68 UK Albums Chart 31 US Billboard 200 4 US Billboard Top Country Albums 2 US Billboard Top Digital Albums 4

Year-end charts End-of-year chart (2007) Position US Billboard Top Country Albums 61 End-of-year chart (2008) Position US Billboard Top Country Albums 31

Release history

Country	Date
United States	October 9, 2007
Australia	October 15, 2007

Alternate covers

Bonus DVD version

Australian cover

References

V*E LeAnn Rimes albums

Main article: LeAnn Rimes discography Independent albums Everybody's Sweetheart (1991) From My Heart to Yours (1992) All That (1994) Studio albums Blue (1996) You Light Up My Life: Inspirational Songs (1997) Sittin' on Top of the World (1998) LeAnn Rimes (1999) Twisted Angel (2002) What a Wonderful World (2004) This Woman (2005) Whatever We Wanna (2006) Family (2007) Lady & Gentlemen (2011) Spitfire (2013) Today Is Christmas (2015) Remnants (2016) Chant: The Human & The Holy (2020) God's Work (2022) Compilations Unchained Melody: The Early Years (1997) God Bless America (2001) I Need You (2002) Greatest Hits (2003) The Best of LeAnn Rimes (2004) The Best of LeAnn Rimes: Remixed (2004) Dance Like You Don't Give A.... Greatest Hits Remixes (2014) All-Time Greatest Hits (2015) The Biggest Hits of LeAnn Rimes: How Do I Live (2018) Extended Plays Best Sellers, Best Price (2010) One Christmas: Chapter 1 (2014) Re-Imagined (2018) Live albums Rimes: Live at Gruene Hall (2019)