Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Scotty McCreery’s debut album, “Clear as Day,” hit stores today.

And the reviews — quite mixed — are rolling in.

I’ll provide links for all I can find. And eventually today I’ll find time between newspaper editing duties to listen to the album myself.

Meanwhile, here’s what folks are saying:

Reuters: Gives Scotty’s album a mixed review, but says there are better tracks than the two singles we’ve heard so far.

GAC: The TV station that profiled Scotty in a Monday night special applauded the Idol winner and producer Mark Bright for creating an album that sounds “crisp and polished, yet rooted in traditional country.”

AllMusic.com: Gives the album 2 stars out of 5, calling “Clear as Day” professional product released quickly enough that it could still capitalize on a fire that’s beginning to smolder down to embers.

Rolling Stone: Gives the album 2 stars out of 5, calling it “a ho-hum jaunt through an America full of dog-eared Bibles, rugged pickup trucks and girls “hot as July, sweet as sunshine.”

USA Today: Gives the album 2 stars out of 4, saying it’s “strictly paint-by-numbers country, with some mildly interesting colors occasionally dabbed inside the lines.”

HitFlix: Gives the album a B-, saying “while every tune is well crafted, like the first two singles, they are so generic in their embrace of a small town America and country ‘values’ that the album could have come with a calendar from the ‘50s and a slice of apple pie.”

Taste of Country: Gives the album 3.5 stars out of 5, saying “fans will not be disappointed with his debut album. ‘Clear as Day’ shows growth without losing that loveable, Opie Taylor-like quality that endeared McCreery to millions of Americans during his ‘American Idol’ run.”