Track Listing

1. It's Your Call
2. Straight from You
3. Take It Back
4. Baby's Gone Blues
5. Heart Won't Lie - Vince Gill, Reba McEntire
6. One Last Good Hand
7. He Wants to Get Married
8. For Herself
9. Will He Ever Go Away
10. Lighter Shade of Blue

Product Details

• Released on: 1992-12-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

An album of quality ballads
When Reba recorded this album, she was still coming to terms with the loss of several road musicians in a plane crash. The first album following that sad event, For my broken heart, was an extremely sad but well-crafted album. This albums shows that Reba had started to move away from that situation but is still, overall, a reflective album.

The title track is about a woman forcing a man to choose her or another woman, who just happens to be on the end of a telephone line waiting for his answer. Straight from you is also about a woman who suspects her man of two timing, only in this case she's not certain. Take it back continues the theme of an unfaithful man - this time it is an up-tempo song in which the man gives himself away by bringing home gifts obviously meant for another woman. Following that trilogy about unfaithful men comes Baby gone blues. This would link nicely to first three songs if the man has chosen the other woman.

Next comes a duet with Vince Gill - an excellent ballad titled The heart won't lie. It's not my favorite duet of theirs because that distinction belongs to Oklahoma swing, a song that appeared on Vince's breakthrough album, When I call your name. Nevertheless, it is a great showcase for their talents.

One last good hand is a brilliant song about dreams coming true in a long-term successful relationship. He wants to get married is another song of optimism. For herself is the story of an independent person who does what she wants. Will he ever go away and Lighter shade of blue are two songs about men who left a long time ago but the women left behind cannot forget.

This is an excellent contemporary country album.

It's YOUR Reba
Reba McEntire referred to It's Your Call as the "second chapter" to 1991's For My Broken Heart. Broken Heart was an intentionally somber tribute to her band members who had recently died in a plane crash. Thankfully, It's Your Call is a lot more upbeat than that gloomy release, as were subsequent follow-ups. Country music has/had no need for a Morticia Addams type.

First off, there's "One Last Good Hand," a breezily optimistic look at longterm love. Its bouncy melody and simple lyrics were a nice change of pace. Also, "Take It Back," which is Reba at her most engaging. This woman informs her man that she KNOWS the score, and would rather do without him than accept his philandering. Sassy!

Ballads, however, dominate the album, which is to be expected on a Reba release. "Straight From You" is a thematic rehash of a prior hit "Rumor Has It" while the title track covers similar territory, except that we're now dealing with facts and not mere rumors. The latter is quintessential Reba: a woman scorned, but never, EVER, wallowing in self-pity.

Reba's voice has always been superior to the majority of her material, and It's Your Call, her 20th album, was no exception. She rises to the occasion and makes each cut at least listenable, and often involving. There were no pop remakes such as "Respect" or "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" this time around. Just good solid country. Overall, it was one of her better releases.

Inconsequential
Oh how everyone loves Reba. No matter what kind of music she manages to peddle off on the public, us diehards are going to snatch it up, no matter the quality or lack thereof. Who cares if she doesn't always deliver top-shelf material--her fans don't seem to. Well, coming off one of her career albums seems to have left her in a quandry, because with IT'S YOUR CALL, she delivers by far her most inconsequential album of the '90s. All the depth held within FOR MY BROKEN HEART is missing in action here, with the set filled out mostly by treacly pop ballads and not enough uptempo numbers. Granted, 'Take It Back' was a welcome respite from her neverending ballad parade, but then she goes and foist on us one of her very worst records, 'The Heart Won't Lie', one of two career-numbing duets she participated in in as many years(the other being the Linda Davis timekiller 'Does He Love You').
The production has the usual slick pop sheen that seemed to dominate her records in the early to mid part of the decade, which is to say it nullifies what little country elements are present. All in all, IT'S YOUR CALL remains, creatively, nothing more than a footnote among McEntire's stronger records.