who can blame Julianne Hough for taking advantage of the built-in audience she garnered from her stint on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars? releasing a new pop-country album is probably a wise business move on her part. since it has nothing to do with dancing, I’m sure ABC and the producers of DWTS don’t have any complaints about it. and thanks to her fan base from the show, the album debuted in the top 5 on Billboard’s Top album chart. but her “TV celeb” status can only take you so far. does the album deliver the goods? unfortunately, I’d have to say no. Julianne Hough is completely likeable and she obviously got the looks but her voice is pretty one-dimensional. Hough doesn’t have the vocal chops to pull listeners in and keep ‘em interested for 40 minutes. to compound the problem, the material is second-rate. the songs are just typical stuff that gets cranked out by the Nashville songwriting mill. they’re probably leftovers that Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill and the like passed on. since she’s on tour the whole summer opening for Brad Paisley, maybe she’ll get to work on those vocal chops. so who knows, maybe with some better material, her follow-up effort might be more interesting…
Julianne Hough TrackList:
1 That Song in My Head (Collins, Martin, Mobley) 3:13
2 You, You, You (Ferrell, Hicks) 3:45
3 Hide Your Matches (Carusoe, Lindsey) 3:40
4 My Hallelujah Song (McEwan, Wiseman) 3:30
5 Jimmy Ray McGee (Frasier, Kear) 3:31
6 Dreaming Under the Same Moon (Johnson, Malloy, Poole) 3:58
7 About Life (Andrews, Rosen, Rosen) 3:17
8 Hello (Dodson, Howard, Shapiro) 3:10
9 Help Me, Help You (Gravitt, Green) 4:01
10 Love Yourself (Irwin, Kear, Malloy) 3:02
11 I’d Just Be with You (Kennedy, Stople) 3:31
She has a nice voice. The song is catchy. But, you are right it is lacking some of that POW! star quality material that you get from say, Carrie Underwood, to use one of your examples.
I’m not even a fan of country music really. But, I’ve been known to cross over and buy an album or two here and there. I mean talent is talent and good songs are good songs. This is a little of both, but not quite enough to make me cross over this time.
michellew on 14 Jul 2008 at 9:25 am #
She has a nice voice. The song is catchy. But, you are right it is lacking some of that POW! star quality material that you get from say, Carrie Underwood, to use one of your examples.
I’m not even a fan of country music really. But, I’ve been known to cross over and buy an album or two here and there. I mean talent is talent and good songs are good songs. This is a little of both, but not quite enough to make me cross over this time.