A Woman & a Man
1996 studio album by Belinda Carlisle
A Woman & a Man is the sixth album by the American singer Belinda Carlisle, released in the United Kingdom on September 23, 1996, by Chrysalis Records (then part of the EMI Group, like Carlisle's former label Virgin Records). The album contains songs written by Rick Nowels, Maria Vidal, Ellen Shipley, Charlotte Caffey, Neil Finn and Roxette co-founder Per Gessle who also produced one of the tracks.
It was released in the United States in 1997 on the Ark 21 Records label. There was a special DTS (surround sound) version released with a slightly different track listing compared to the original; it did not include "Listen to Love", "Love Doesn't Live Here" and "Always Breaking My Heart" but instead had Carlisle singing "Jealous Guy" by John Lennon and "The Ballad of Lucy Jordan" by Shel Silverstein.
Reception
Critical reception
The album received mixed reviews. Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine rated the album four stars out of five saying it is a "mature collection of adult pop, with cool keyboards and subtle arrangements that often make the record sound like background music". However, he also noted that "Carlisle has rarely been in better voice". Entertainment Weekly's Steven Mirkin gave the album C− saying that "Carlisle has neither the voice nor personality to overcome her album's cold, emotionally sterile core."
Music & Media called it a "brilliant album", noting that "added to her west coast pop sound are a melancholic savoir faire and contemporary electronic beats. The best example is the unforgettable "California", which is a mid-tempo declaration of hate to Los Angeles ("I want to walk away from the sharks and the Chardonnay") with spine-chilling harmonies and beautiful melodies. The album's title track is a little faster, an excellent single candidate, which has a highly addictive driving rhythm, whirling strings, a wah wah disco guitar and poppy vocals.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “A Woman & a Man” is 1996 studio album by Belinda Carlisle. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Woman, studio and album, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “1996 studio album by Belinda Carlisle” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4660746. None of the 4 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1996 and 1997.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “A Woman & a Man” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.