In 2001 Chely Wright released her fifth album, Never Love You Enough. The album did not do as well as the label had expected. So they decided to take her best tracks from previous albums and combine them all into an album called The Best of Chely Wright ~ The Millennium Collection~. This album included the very best that Chely had to offer.

I will also include what album the song was orginially from in my track listing.

Tracks:

1. Til I Was Loved By You (Woman in the Moon)
2. Sea of Cowboy Hats (Woman in the Moon)
3. Listenin' to the Radio (Right in the Middle of It)
4. Shut Up and Drive (Let Me In)
5. I Already Do (Let Me In)
6. Just Another Heartache (Let Me In)
7. Single White Female (Single White Female)
8. She Went Out for Cigarettes (Single White Female)
9. It Was (Single White Female)
10. The Love That We Lost (Right in the Middle of It)
11. Never Love You Enough (Never Love You Enough)
12. Jezebel (Never Love You Enough)

Til I Was Loved By You has a great beat. It was on her debut album. Alan Jackson was one of the co-writers. "And baby, I've been held and I've been tied down - I've been wrapped and I've been unwound - I've been kissed oh - But I ain't never been loved - Till I was loved by you". Sea of Cowboy Hats is a song that Chely co-wrote. It also came from her debut album. It is a fast song with a traditional country sound. I love the harmonica you hear in the song. "I'm dancin' in a sea of cowboy hats - Shoulder to shoulder and back to back - Two steppin' fools as far as the eye can see - They're ridin' the wave on that sawdust floor - Rockin' the boat from shore to shore - So jump right in cause this is where it's at in the sea of cowboy hats". You don't get any more country than this. It has that twangy sound to it.

Listenin' to the Radio is a fun, upbeat song. It's about loving a wild man, cruising down the road and looking for a fast song on the radio. Shut Up and Drive was Chely's first top ten hit. This is the first song I ever heard Chely sing. The song is someone about someone leaving a man and telling herself to "shut up and drive" and to never look back. It's a catchy song with great background vocals. "I'm the voice you never listen to - And I had to break your heart to make you see - That he's the one who will be missing you - And you'll only miss the man - That you wanted him to be".

I Already Do is a beautiful song about being in love. Chely sings this ballad softly with almost an angelic sound. The background vocals add a nice touch to the song also. Just Another Heartache is a fast song with a great beat. It's about a girl falling for a guy and wondering if he is the real deal. She wonders if he will break her heart. It's your average country song.

Single White Female was a #1 hit for Chely. It was written by Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Shaye Smith. I think pop fans would like this one. It's about a woman placing a personal want ad to try to catch a certain guy that she secretly wants. "Single white female - Looking for that special lover - To put it in a nutshell - A one women man who doesn't want no other - Oh, you never can tell - She just might be your dream come true - A single white female - Is looking for a man like you".

She Went Out for Cigarettes is one of my favorite songs that Chely sings. It's actually a sad kind of song. It's about a woman that has a man who never notices her. She leaves one day to go to the store and just keeps on driving. "She went out for cigarettes - And just kept driving on - He didn't even know it yet - But she's gone". It's a slow song with great background vocals.

It Was is an awesome song about someone falling in love. The lyrics are really catchy. "It was real...It was magic - It was calm...It was savage - It was cool as a breeze - It was warm to the touch - It was never enough
It was always too much - It did all the things love does
That's how I knew - It was". It was another top ten hit for Chely. The Love That We Lost is about a couple who is looking all through the house for the love that they lost. It's a sad song about how their love is "captured in old picture frames" and "reflected in our children's eyes".

Never Love You Enough is a pretty song about being in love. The words to the song are beautiful. This is a song that sounds more pop to me. It seems like a song that Faith Hill would sing. "I could kiss you in the rain forever - Turn all of your pain to pleasure - Fill up all your days with sunlight - Make the passion last every night - Give you my every possession - Make you my only obsession - Climb up to the sky and pull down all the stars above - But I could never love you enough".

Jezebel is another one of my favorite songs. The lyrics are comparable to something Loretta Lynn's "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man". The song is about one woman talking to another. " 'Cause I do not forgive and I do not forget - I will fight for love until the death - Jezebel, save your charms -He'll be back here in my arms - Oh how quickly you forget -
He is not yours yet - He is not yours not yet".

Chely's Sound:

I was reading Chely's biography at CMT.com and Countrystars.com. It said that she grew up listening to Loretta Lynn, Connie Smith, Buck Owens and Conway Twitty so her traditional country roots run deep.

I can't describe Chely's sing any better than she did herself. Chely said, "Roots never change, and anything I sing is going to be country". She desribes her sound as "a good blend of fresh sound with a very, very deep rooted country 'thang. I feel like you can tell when you hear my voice that I listened to Emmylou and Connie Smith, and Loretta, and I think you can also tell that I'm a big fan of Martina McBride, Patty Loveless and Trisha Yearwood.

I think Chely has a great country voice. If you are a Chely fan you need this CD in your collection. I enjoy her music, but this is the only CD of hers that I need. It picks the best from all of her albums and compiles them all into one.

Related Reviews:

Chely Wright Online Store

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Cleaning the House