Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Brooke White
“High Hopes & Heartbreak”

1. Radio Radio
2. Hold Up My Heart
3. Out of the Ashes
4. Phoenix
5. When We Were One
6. Use Somebody
7. Smile
8. Little Bird
9. High Hopes & Heartbreak
10. Sometimes Love
11. California Song
12. Be Careful

I love “High Hopes & Heartbreak.”

The song, that is.

The album?

It sputters early on.

I never understood “Hold Up My Heart” as the first single. Hey, it’s an OK song, but I lose interest about halfway through.

And when Brooke sang it on Idol, I couldn’t help thinking, “You’d better have better than that, or the album’s in trouble.”

Then, of all the thousands of songs Brooke possibly could have covered, she chooses “Use Somebody,” the recent hit from Kings of Leon. Again, I don’t get it.

The good news: There are enough solid songs on the first half of the album to keep you listening.

Then Brooke hits her stride with the hauntingly beautiful “Smile.” And the rest of the CD is simply superb.

Make sure to check out feel-good tunes like “Little Bird” and “California Song.”

And was that a false start I’m hearing on “Sometimes Love?” And was it intentional, given Brooke’s infamous false starts on Idol?

I’ve posed the question to Brooke’s p.r. folks. I haven’t gotten an answer yet.

Special kudos go to producer David Cobb, who keeps Brooke’s unique voice front and center on every song. No overblown productions here.

The result: The Brooke we hear is the Brooke we met on Idol. That doesn’t always happen when contestants leave the show and exit a recording studio.

As for Brooke’s voice, here’s an interesting story. During an appearance on BlogTalk radio, Brooke says she really didn’t start singing until she was 15 or 16.

“I was one of those people who, if someone had asked me if you sing, I would have said, ‘Oh, no. You do not want to hear me sing.’ In my ears, I wasn’t hearing a pleasant voice.”

Then her cousin tricked her into trying out for a high school musical. She wound up with the lead role in “Meet Me in St. Louis.”

“That was the beginning.”

To Brooke’s cousin: A big thank you.

Grade: B+

Free listen:
Brooke’s MySpace for “Radio Radio” and “Hold Up My Heart”

Other reviews:
AllMusic.com: Gives Brooke 3.5 stars out of 5

Miami Herald: Gives Brooke 3 stars out of 5