This Woman's Heart (Asylum, 2000)

Chalee Tennison has set her sights high on her sophomore CD. She hopes that people (presumably male people) who wish to understand women better would listen to this album rather than buy books like "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus." A worthy goal (certainly somebody needs to shut John Gray up), but if history is any indication, an unreachable one.

"I'm Healing" is a realistic look at getting over a broken heart, while "What I Tell Myself" is a pretty good recipe for breaking it anew. The super-sentimental "Go Back" is the aural equivalent of a chick flick - what do you call that? a broad ballad? a dame ditty? Maybe men can relate to "Somebody Save Me" wherein a person who has to be strong all the time wishes someone would take care of them once in awhile.

But some of the other songs - like "Break It Even" where Tennison says she doesn't mind getting her heart broken as long as it's in two equal pieces, and "I Ain't" where a woman who flirts and kisses and drinks and kicks up her heels, even offers to show you her "hidden tattoo" declares with a straight face that she's not easy - are as mystifying to the male psyche as if they were sung in Venusian.