Love, Shelby

By Benjamin Nugent

Not even Lynne's vaunted Alabama twang is much in evidence on this dead-center-of-the-road pop record. The down-home girl has hooked up with city-boy studio wiz Glen Ballard, producer of Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, and put her big, gritty voice to work for his more-is-more orchestrations. Both for better and for worse, her vocals have become the icing on his sugary vanilla layer cake of strings, guitars, keyboards and marching-band drum fills. His adornments make some of Lynne's performances, like a cover of John Lennon's Mother, feel dipped in lead; and others, like the ballad Wall in Your Heart, in certified gold.

--B.N.