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Album review: Loretta Lynn’s ‘Full Circle’

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Three stars

Loretta Lynn Full Circle

The last time country icon Loretta Lynn recorded a new album, 2004’s Van Lear Rose, she collaborated with Jack White on songs that reached out to a new audience, garnering critical acclaim and award attention. There’s no such outreach on Full Circle, a collection of mostly covers that looks backward even on its handful of original compositions. At 83, Lynn doesn’t need to be breaking new ground, and she sounds relaxed on laid-back versions of her own past hits, a couple of old Carter Family chestnuts and a few somewhat sappy pop standards. She conjures a bit of her renowned feistiness on new song “Everything It Takes,” co-written with Todd Snider and featuring harmony vocals by Elvis Costello, and asks “Who’s Gonna Miss Me?” on her other original songwriting contribution. It’s the years of country classics, rather than this sweet but forgettable collection, that ensure a chorus of positive responses to that question.

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