Dualtone (Red)
2005
The Metropolitan Hotel
About This Album
Chely Wright wasn't the only female country vocalist to straddle the line between neo-traditional country and slick modern country-pop, but she was one of the best of her kind, thanks in large part to her earthy tenor, which gave even the poppiest songs a rooting in real country. In 1999 she had a breakthrough with Single White Female, whose title track not only topped the country charts but cracked the pop Top 40, but she had a hard time capitalizing on its success, stumbling with its 2001 sequel, Never Love You Enough, which may have charted higher than its predecessor, but that was only due to momentum. It not only didn't produce a big hit, it led to a separation from her major label, MCA. When she re-emerged nearly four years later on the indie Dualtone, she was part of a wave of artists from the '90s who turned toward indies after being abandoned by the majors, a movement that resulted in a bunch of interesting records that found artists who played the Nashville game for the better part of ten years finding their true voice nearly a decade into their career. Sometimes the results were uneven, but they were always interesting and often were quite good, sometimes resulting in the riskiest and best work of an artist's career, as is the case with Wright's 2005 album, The Metropolitan Hotel.
Track List (try tracks 1,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10)

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