Rimes, 25, once sued her record label on the grounds that her contract - signed by her parents when she was 12 - prevented her being "her own person". More than 38m sales later, she's writing or co-writing all her own songs and finding her own voice. Family is an album full of swaggering rhythm'n'booze and emotional confessionals that explore a dysfunctional childhood. A slightly too-smooth production and typically overblown Bon Jovi collaboration act against notions of her as a modern Janis Joplin, but it's certainly disconcerting to hear a big-voiced former AOR child star saying that all she needs is a good friend and a glass of wine.
