Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Katharine McPhee
“Unbroken”

1. It’s Not Right
2. Had It All
3. Keep Drivin’
4. Last Letter
5. Surrender
6. Terrified
7. How
8. Say Goodbye
9. Faultline
10. Anybody’s Heart
11. Lifetime
12. Unbroken
13. Brand New Key

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Back in September, when Katharine McPhee announced the release of her second album had been pushed back to Jan. 5, some Idol followers were speculating that it had to be a dummy date. After all, who releases a new album the week after the holiday season?

Personally, I think it was a shrewd move. There were an awful lot of heavy hitters coming out with albums in the past few months. Not to mention deluxe releases of “Fearless” and “Fame,” two of 2009’s mega hits. Not to mention first albums from the newly minted Idols.

Simply put, Katharine McPhee — new hair color and all — was not going to get as much attention with a fall release as she’s getting right now.

Still, I fear music fans are going to greet her album with a collective shrug.

Hey, at least I’m not baffled by the selection of singles, as I sometimes am with the Idols.

The Kara DioGuardi co-written lead single, “Had It All,” is catchy enough to get some airplay and score Katharine at least a minor hit. (Watch Kat perform the song on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” below.)

And “Say Goodbye” was available on iTunes as a single in the pre-release publicity campaign for the album. The tender ballad features the best vocal on the album. Now there’s a song I could listen to over and over.

The rest of the album?

Well, anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I’m hardly a huge fan of Kara. But I read a recent interview she did with Billboard, and something she said struck me as right on the mark. These days, for an album to really sell, for an album to become a real hit, it had better be six singles deep, according to Kara.

Katharine McPhee’s “Unbroken” is not six singles deep. And I can’t blame Kara. She only helped write two of the 13 tracks (“Terrified” being the other).

Give Kat this, she was clearly more involved in the making of album number two than she was in her self-titled 2007 debut album. She has writing credits on six of the songs.

And, this time, the music fits her better. For her debut, someone decided she should play R&B diva, singing to dance beats. Which struck me as odd, since her signature moments on Idol came when she performed “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” while sitting and “Black Horse and a Cherry Tree” from her knees.

This time around, there simply isn’t enough pizzazz to accompany Kat’s new look, though the CD booklet does feature a fold-out mini-poster and ending the album with a whimsical cover of “Brand New Key” is a neat touch.

Download worthy: “Had It All,” “Say Goodbye,” “Brand New Key.”

Grade: C

Other Reviews

Houston Chronicle: Gives Kat 2 stars out of 4
EW.com (Entertainment Weekly): Gives Kat a C+
Salt Lake Tribute: Gives Kat a C-

Idol Chatter album reviews:

Best and Worst Idol Albums of 2009: Go here
Capsule album reviews: Go here — Keep checking back. I add older Idol albums all the time
How it works: Full reviews of newly released Idol albums appear the Sunday after the release date.

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