NEW YORK, NY. (Top40 Charts/ INO Records/ Columbia) -
Chris Rice continues to head in a fresh direction with his new studio release, What A
Heart Is Beating For, on INO Records/Columbia.
Rice is perhaps best known for last year's top 10 mainstream AC radio hit, "When Did You Fall (In Love With Me?)," which has subsequently become a wedding staple. Currently, Rice's new single, "Lemonade" is soaring up the Billboard AC chart.
The new album, produced by Monroe Jones, also features the provocative stand-out track "You Don't Have to Yell," a song which calls the media to task for creating news and not reporting it, reality television for emphasizing shouting matches as a solution, and criticizes narrow-mindedness and intolerance.
"I'm more excited about these songs on the project than ever," says Rice. "I feel like they've taken me as a writer into new territory that allowed me to explore different aspects of my own writing and thinking. There aren't constraints on it. There aren't lines in the coloring book that I have to stay in. I get to put on the page whatever I want. It's a freedom I can't describe."
The first single off of the album, "Lemonade," follows the Number 7 AC hit, "When Did You Fall (In Love With Me?)," which stayed on the chart for more than six months. "Lemonade" is perhaps the ultimate optimistic anthem. The lyric is bursting with visuals of a beautiful sky and the fruits of a positive attitude. We've all heard the adage about making lemonade out of lemons, but Rice turns it into a buoyant song celebrating the resiliency and joy of the human spirit. "What a Heart is Beating For," the title song, soars and swells as the music underscores the poignancy of the lyrics. Rice says, "It says just take a deep breath and throw open the door, that's what the heart is beating for, you are alive and your heart is beating so you can take these risks."
Well known for such hits as "Deep Enough to Dream," "Clumsy," and "Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus)," Rice has built a solid career penning literate, colorful lyrics then bringing them to life with his warm, compelling voice. Rice's last album found him delving deeper into matters of the heart. What emerged was a surprisingly romantic soul with the ability to write songs that made women sigh and men smile knowingly.
INO Records launched in April 1999, designed to create 'independently minded' artist-label partnerships and has a strategic marketing and distribution arrangement with Columbia Records/SonyBMG. Other artists on the label include: Mercy Me, POD, Skillet and Mike Farris.
