By Billy Altman

Martina McBride's last album was 1997's Evolution, and that title continues to be appropriate, as this year's CMA Female Vocalist Of The Year has followed that double-platinum seller by again stretching herself.

Recorded with a stripped-down core of guitars, keyboards, bass, and drums (you'll have to wait until the 10th track to hear a pedal steel, and for the 12th and final one for a traditional fiddle), McBride here moves into the kind of content-over-form territory occupied by only a few Nashville stars (most notably, Trisha Yearwood). Elements of folk ("Make Me Believe," the sociopolitical "Love's The Only House") and pop ("Make Me Believe," "Anything and Everything") help diversify the sound of this album, a work ultimately about musical ideals and artistic vision.

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