Rolling Stone (10/6/94, pp.88-90) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...I LOVE EVERYBODY exploits the qualities that confounded Nashville while establishing Lovett as one of our most distinctive songwriters..."
Spin (10/94, pp.115-117) - Highly Recommended - "...Fortunately, Lovett ultimately upholds his reputation as the wryest wit in country music...I LOVE EVERYBODY flags Lovett as the rarest of breeds: the incorruptible celebrity..."
Q (10/94, p.111) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...packed with the bitter and the bizarre, the surreal and the softly romantic, that idiosyncratic mix that has marked all his output..."
Musician (11/94, p.91) - "...unlike his Large Band albums, this one isn't out to dazzle or amuse; it aims to seduce...exquisitely nuanced, deceptively quiet arrangements..."
NME (Magazine) (12/24/94, p.23) - Ranked #45 in NME's list of the `Top 50 Albums Of 1994.'
Personnel includes: Lyle Lovett (vocals, guitar); Sid Page, Mark O'Connor (violin); John Hagen (cello, background vocals); Larry Corbett, Daniel Smith, Steve Richards, Suzie Katayama (cello); Greg Adams, Lee Thornburg (trumpet), Nicholas Lane (trombone); John Leftwich (bass); Edgar Meyer (arco bass); Russ Kunkel (drums, percussion); Kenny Aronoff (drums); Rickie Lee Jones, Leo Kottke, Julia Roberts, Jim Kerr, Herb Pederson, Harry Stinson, Sir Harry Bowens, Sweet Pea Atkinson, Walter Hyatt, Willis Alan Ramsey (background vocals).
Recorded at Conway Studios, Hollywood, California from August 31, 1993 to January 12, 1994.
I LOVE EVERYBODY was nominated for a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Pop Album.
What genre does Lyle Lovett represent? Is he country? Is he folk? Western swing? Rockabilly? Lyle Lovett is a whimsical singer-songwriter who was never accepted by the Nashville establishment, with a musical lineage of uncertain origin--though he shows a predilection for roots music of every variety.
I LOVE EVERYBODY resonates with the kind of droll wit and mordant wordplay that some might associate with Randy Newman. The spare little miniatures that populate I LOVE EVERYBODY are painted on a broad white sonic canvas with the sparest of instrumentation: generally Lovett's acoustic guitar, plus acoustic bass and drums, with odd splashes of strings, and arco counterpoint by violinist Mark O'Connor, cellist John Hagen and bassist Edgar Meyer.
Lovett's world is populated by incorrigible misfits and loners. There's the touching "Fat Girl" who "...ain't fat no more...And she sings of love, And blind compassion, but she don't mean it..." There's a Lovett-like character on "They Don't Like Me" who is happy just to get along, despite all the put-downs ("And he's really not that ugly dear/She could have done much worse"). There's the shy guy of "Sonja," the lost beau of "Hello Grandma," the nostalgic country-boy of "Good-Bye To Carolina," and the sensitive lover of the title tune. Lovett's songs are lived in and poignant and utterly unique. I LOVE EVERYBODY is its own genre, and a brilliant one at that.