ShareThis"LEAVE THIS TOWN," Daughtry (RCA)
The bar is set low for expectations of "American Idol" contestants in the real world, but it's elevated a bit for those few who have managed to poke into the upper echelon of success. That's how to explain that Daughtry's new "Leave This Town" is both a sore disappointment and still better than many releases by "Idol" singers.
Daughtry, fronted by former "Idol" contender Chris Daughtry (from the show's fifth season, won by Taylor Hicks), had the No. 1-selling album of 2007 with its self-titled debut, which should have enabled Chris Daughtry to follow his muse. Yet he followed it right into a "Leave This Town" that's so aggressively trite, it's appalling.
Of course Daughtry can't be blamed for trying to monetize his career to some degree, even to a considerable extent. But his steadfast adherence to formula makes him little more than a tactician with a decent singing voice.
Individual cuts -- especially the fittingly titled first single "No Surprise" -- probably have enough zest to hold a place between Black Eyed Peas songs on the airwaves, or even shoot to the top of a modern-rock chart (given the decaying state of that genre). However, it's enervating to hear "Leave This Town's" succession of anonymous songs with their predictable guitars, inevitable swells and raucous outros. The stale arrangements are mostly just decoration for trivial themes, like lame apologies ("Life After You") and sassy comebacks ("What I Meant to Say"). But Daughtry's greatest transgression is his attempt to go deep, as on the death-themed "Open Up Your Eyes," where he trots out hackneyed imagery such as a single rose, a single tear and a cold day in December.
Years from now, rock-music fans will look back at the unparalleled success of 2007's "Daughtry" and wonder what the fuss was all about. And if "Leave This Town" becomes the best seller for 2009, they might just roll their eyes at a whole generation.
Rating (five possible): 2
"OF FAITH, POWER AND GLORY," VNV Nation (Anachron)
War is hell, and so is the constant reminder that war is hell.
So VNV Nation's new "Of Faith, Power and Glory" is a relentless inferno.
It's also something of a techno opera with all of its histrionic posturing and epic themes of heroism, corruption and belligerence.
The duo's Ronan Harris and Mark Jackson have been churning out hard-polished electronic-beat music for a decade, and "Of Faith, Power and Glory" doesn't reinvent their formula. The militaristic beats of opening track "Pro Victoria" launch "Of Faith" with grandiosity, and rarely does VNV Nation find much subtlety after that, though the true ballad "From My Hands" finds the usually strident Harris singing, "If I'm far too sentimental, I apologize/Please understand this is who I am."
Harris is an emotional flashpoint who often torches the rollicking arrangements with urgent delivery of lyrics that seem both hopeful and foreboding -- as when he asks, "Are we dreaming that there are better days to come?," against all manner of electric skittering and pounding on "Sentinel." There's less ambivalence in "Tomorrow Never Comes," however, as Ronan arcs his voice into, "Heaven help us, we've lost control ... We're racing toward the end of days."
Meanwhile, "Of Faith, Power and Glory" is paced like a musical. For example, a mini-drama-within-the-drama unfolds as "The Great Divide," which sounds like an accessible synth-based '80s pop song, lapses into the somber march of "Ghost" that in turn leads to a climax with the intensity of a propulsive "Art of Conflict" that seems all the more explosive because of the burning-fuse effect from the preceding cuts.
As usual, VNV Nation creates a demanding sound. The duo knows how to push buttons and does so -- with a sledgehammer.
Rating: 3-1/2
"EYES WIDE OPEN," Olivia Broadfield (Vagrant)
Olivia Broadfield's dreamy "Eyes Wide Open" is a fantasyland with tight borders.
The English singer-songwriter fashions a sort of music-box electronica with glowing synthetic vibes underscored by gurgling rhythms. Broadfield -- a successor to Imogene Heap without the volatility or Dido without the resonance -- then layers on her endearing and childlike vocals as she sings about inner conflict and vulnerability.
She's limited by design, playing to her very specific strengths and keeping a narrow perspective on "Eyes Wide Open" for continuity. However, the downside of her self-imposed restrictions creates unavoidable deja vu. While she's effective at conveying a sense of quiet inner turmoil about an unhealthy relationship on the spacious "Indescribable," she does it all over again on the shuffling "Lost in You." Also, her gossamer delivery on "Don't Cry" achieves soft-touch impact but doesn't work so well the second time around with "Don't Let Go," and her hypnotic encouragement on "Hang On" seems somewhat sullied by the gratuitous reprise, "Safe."
Yet it's hard to resist her spell on at least a temporary basis. When Broadfield sings, "How my heart aches when you look at me," against the graciously full arrangement of "Holding Onto You," for instance, you can't help but empathize with her irrational obsession.
"Crashing Down," the last credited song (not accounting for a blissful "hidden" track at the end), is a surprising and rewarding switch-up in which the singer dovetails into an up-tempo jazz/dance swoop. The cut's placement on "Eyes Wide Open" makes it seem as if it took Broadfield that long to work up the nerve to be demonstrative. And with any luck, she won't lose it before she records a follow-up.
Rating: 3-1/2
(E-mail Chuck Campbell of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at Campbell(at)knews.com.)
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