• iTunes
From the beginning of the series’ fifth season, Katharine McPhee seemed like the ideal American Idol; a drop-dead gorgeous brunette, she was certainly telegenic and she also had a powerhouse voice, equally impressive on a slow-burning, show-stopping “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as on a lively cover of KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.” Most importantly, Katharine was the first American Idol finalist since the premiere season to seem to appeal to the show’s core audience or predominantly female pre-teens and adolescents, the first since Kelly Clarkson to possess a crucial blend of young, fresh looks, pop sensibility, and wholesome sexiness. All the pieces seemed to be in place for McPhee to take home the crown, but she got steamrolled by the Soul Patrol, as the world’s youngest Baby Boomer, the prematurely grey Taylor Hicks, won the competition by appealing to the other AmIdol core audience — the adults who grew up on the pop of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and were wondering where all the good music went. Taylor’s record appealed precisely to that audience, which freed runner-up Katharine to deliver an album that appeals to younger listeners, at least in theory. In practice, it took a bit of effort to get involved with McPhee’s album to agree to this principle. According to several pre-release interviews, the singer approached her producers and label midway through production, requesting that the album sound younger, specifically, she wanted the music to have a stronger R&B and modern pop influence, so it would sound contemporary, which, in turn, would give her a greater chance of establishing herself as an artist outside the confines of American Idol — and as Kelly Clarkson proved with her two albums, this could result in greater success both in the short term and in the long run.
RCA acquiesced to Katharine, delaying the holiday 2006 release of the album and pushing it into the first month of 2007, but that didn’t mean that all of the original recordings were scrapped; some new sounds were added to the pre-existing sessions, resulting in a curiously lopsided final album, one that has two opposing sounds fighting against each other. There is, as Katharine requested, a heavy dose of modern pop her — mainly, a lot of songs that bear a heavy Beyonce influence, along with traces of Christina, and the results can be quite stylish and alluring, as on the glistening, exuberant opener, “Love Story,” which strikes precisely the right blend or retro-70’s soul vibes and sparkling, stylish contemporary rhythms. But for everytime the modern makeover works, it almost as often goes awry, as the jarringly awkward, rapid-free “Open Toes,” a self-conscious celebration of sexy shoes on with Katharine never once sounds believeable; she sings as if she’s only seen pictures of this footwear in US Weekly and never once wore them herself. This disconnect is a common problem throughout this eponymous debut album: try as she may, Kat never sounds sexy as she struts on numbers like “Do What You Do,” which doesn’t come as a great surprise since she was always more spunky than sultry on the show, but it’s a problem that plagues even the old-fashioned tunes, which should have been McPhee’s forte. True, most of the slow ones here are little more than boilerplate ballads, but McPhee can’t breathe life into these songs, so they just sit there inert, sounding impeccable but unmemorable. And that gets to the core problem with Katharine McPhee: as pretty as she is, as talented as she is, she has yet to develop a performing personality that is distinctively hers. That was also true of Carrie Underwood, but she benefited by willfully submitting herself to the machinations of Nashville, where she was skillfully molded into a country-pop star blessed with strong material and strong productions. Here McPhee submits to two different formulas, neither of which are entirely successful because they rely on her to carry the music with her personality, which she can’t quite do yet. That these two formulas don’t quite complement each other also hurts the record, since it never gels, but on the positive side, the album does suggest McPhee’s instincts about going younger were correct. Missteps like “Open Toes” aside, the tracks that truly work are the ones that sound modern, whether it’s “Love Story,” the Christina-aping “Home,” “Not Ur Girl,” or even “Do What You Do,” which works in spite of Kat’s lack of sensuality. These are slices of sleek, bright modern pop that sound like what a young American Idol should sound like in 2006. That McPhee can’t quite deliver on their promise for the entirety of her debut is disappointing, but it’s not a disaster — after all, this is just a debut, and first albums are often where an artist shows promise instead of fulfills it. Here Katharine — just like she did on the show — suggests that she has the potential to be the freshest mainstream pop singer American Idol has produced since Kelly Clarkson. Even if the album ultimately plays like a handful of good singles and filler, that’s not too different than Kelly’s debut, and even if McPhee isn’t yet as charismatic as Clarkson, this record shows she has the raw ingredients to become a true pop star instead of merely playing one on tv.
• Amazon
Katharine McPhee has a cloudless voice and a warm, wide-eyed Alice in Wonderland quality that won her swarms of fans on American Idol’s fifth season–if Simon Cowell had a ready antonym for “ghastly,” there’s little room for doubt about which contestant he would have applied it to. While debates over whether McPhee’s considerable grace and talent should have won her the TV competition rage on across the Idol-viewing landscape, one thing’s certain: she’s made a debut album good enough to render such determinations meaningless. Katharine McPhee is an R&B-leaning pop disc that pulls the urgency and tenderness out of her voice and pins it smack in the center of each song. The slickly produced opener “Love Story” displays a certain swagger, and “Not Ur Girl” and “Open Toes” follow it up with still more spunk and attitude (something some McPhans asked to see more of on AI). If there’s a crisp, smartly maneuvered Christina Aguilera-meets-Beyoncé-and-Mariah sensibility at work in those songs, the ballads belong to McPhee alone. “Somewhere over the Rainbow” made her a star on TV; “Ordinary World” and “Better off Alone” have the staying power to make her a star in music.
• Cinema Blend
As an entertainment writer, it’s my duty to objectively review music that might not normally interest me. And while I know this isn’t a record that I will listen to many more times for my own enjoyment, I have done my best to set all preconceptions aside and report what this album makes me think and feel. So, let’s give it a go, shall we?
Katharine McPhee, the runner-up to a much less formidable opponent in the 2006 American Idol T.V contest, is a beautiful girl with a pleasing voice. Having grown up in L.A with her music-oriented family, McPhee has been singing her lungs out since the age of two and has honed her talent well enough to be, at the very least, a solid pop performer.
Katharine McPhee is her self-titled debut album—and, as it stands, is not a thoroughly masterful effort. While each track is certainly bursting with McPhee’s enthusiasm, what we’re left with is a product that is half mediocre and half great. The record sets off horns blazing with the engrossing “Love Story,” about a girl falling for a guy who used to be in the proverbial “friend zone.” The direct antithesis to that melody is “Do What You Do”—a club-hungry piece that is just plain uninteresting.
“Over It” is being released as the first single off the record and I think that’s a mistake. It’s rather overdone, and too emotive and repetitive to be the first song introduced to the radio waves, especially when there are better ones to choose from.
My personal favorite is “Not Ur Girl,” a vivaciously feisty anthem where she proclaims the sad news that, “I’m not your girl/don’t get confused because you see me looking at you/I’m not your girl/I’m not leaving with you just because you ask me to.” The final number, “Everywhere I Go,” concludes the CD with enough steam to carry McPhee over to future escapades.
It’s easy to assume that this debut record would be conjured up with lovey-dovey ballads, but that is not the case. With the exception of “Each Other” as the one straight-up love ballad and “Home,” which I think has spiritual connotations, the tracks are primarily geared toward the broken-hearted, bitter, Ben & Jerry’s-devouring single woman. You know—the type who says men are all jerks and she always has bad luck with them, despite always dating the same type of guys over and over.
So we have a contrast between the “hot” and “not” duking it out in this one. The good songs are really good and the rest are…well, not. In any case, Miss McPhee should be proud of herself and this mixed-bag first attempt, which will likely sell a lot of copies and get a bunch of radio play. The 22-year-old has a hot voice and enough sex appeal to transcend her to the pop elite, just so long as she plays her cards right. I would merely advise her to not travel down the same path of her personal idol, Whitney Houston; just lay off the rocks, sweetheart.
• Rhapsody
The debut from American Idol’s fifth season runner-up is McPheever-inducing. It finds Katherine McPhee transformed from a giggly Broadway baby into a sizzling R&B songstress. Here she introduces urban club anthems like “Love Story,” “Open Toes” and “Neglected,” as well as contemporary power ballads like “Ordinary World” and “Home.” Following in the footsteps of Idol vet Kelly Clarkson, McPhee delivers a strong, soulful debut.
• American Idol Worship
Six years into the process and they still can’t get it right the first time.
They would be the folks charged with helping American Idol contestants make a debut album that just hits it out of the park. An album that isn’t, without fail, composed of one big money track, a couple of good songs, and a lot of personality-free filler.
McPheeLast year’s almost-Idol Katharine McPhee had better pray that top 40 programmers get behind her the way country radio did for 2005 champ Carrie Underwood if she hopes to make it to that all-important second album. Because like Kelly Clarkson before her, McPhee’s debut doesn’t do justice to what she likely has to offer.
Out today, this unbalanced but promising self-titled debut follows the established American Idol formula almost to the letter.
Although McPhee, a former student at the Boston Conservatory, was positioned as an old-fashioned vocalist on the show with her fan-favored rendition of “Over the Rainbow,” she also excelled at lighter pop fare such as KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.”
The album’s cabal of songwriters and producers - including, but not limited to, Timbaland protégé Nate “Danja” Hills , pop song doctor Kara DioGuardi , and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds - try unsuccessfully to cram both of those sides, and a few others, onto one record.
The first single, “Over It,” is a soul-spiced, mid - tempo kiss-off of the sort that’s been especially popular of late — see Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable,” JoJo’s “Too Little Too Late” (by the same writers) and Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone. ” It’s a good style for McPhee. Yet her generic vocal makes it sound as if it could be a demo for any one of the above
An obligatory pair of big, blowsy Mariah Carey-style piano anthems should play to the core Idol audience, but they do nothing to illuminate who the 22-year-old California native is beyond a pretty girl with a pretty voice.
A few ill-advised flirtations with the type of sister-friend soul associated with Mary J. Blige — impeccably produced by Hills — only manage to make McPhee seem squarer than she actually is, and a lite-reggae number is best not spoken of again.
But for almost every ridiculous song like “Open Toes” - a slick dance track that’s supposed to be in the sassy Christina Aguilera mold but, by being about shoes, is just silly - there is a gem like “Better Off Alone.” This ruminative blues sounds relaxed and emotionally honest, and plays into strengths McPhee displayed on the show.
Nonsensically , McPhee and her handlers placed “Better Off Alone,” as well as the dreamy Babyface contribution “Everywhere I Go,” at the end of the album. Hopefully, next time McPhee will play to her strong suit instead of trying to play all her cards at once.
• Blogcritics Magazine
When contestants belt their hearts out on American Idol, it’s become almost as fun to anticipate not only what kind of album they’re going to make once the show is over but how the public will like them when they’re not singing someone else’s songs as it is to watch the show.
Katharine McPhee is really the first American Idol contestant that truly looks like an American Idol. Carrie Underwood is quite beautiful, but Katharine is a bombshell. So I’m sure RCA felt they had a potential goldmine in signing this girl to their label — someone who could so easily fit into today’s pop market.
Katharine’s self-titled debut surely does fit into today’s pop market, as does her look, but I think the sound of her CD is going to come as quite a shock to most people who voted for her on American Idol, and even those who didn’t. The album boasts a multitude of pop tracks: some uptempo dance songs like the fun and funky soundtrack-bound “Love Story;” some midtempo, like the infectious “Not Ur Girl” and catchy premiere single “Over It;” and some beautiful ballads like the soulful “Better Off Alone” and “Each Other.”
It’s interesting reading a lot of reviews of the album, most reviewers barely even mention the tracks on the record. It’s usually an overall criticism of the direction she went, her personality, or just some mess that doesn’t really make any sense that they cut and pasted from comments someone made on a gossip blog.
That’s not to say the album is perfect, but judging from some of the early reviews you’d think McPhee delivered a dud and for a debut album, this is anything but. Hell, I would have preferred to have her sing an album full of jazz standards and Barbra Streisand type ballads too, but the reality is that if she had done that, she would’ve flopped - faded faster than Taylor Hicks’ hair - and that would’ve been the end of the McPheever. Katharine knows what she’s doing, and at least if she was going to make a pop, R&B, and dance record, it’s good that she made a very enjoyable one.
And maybe after she’s gained some clout with the success of this album, she can pull a Christina Aguilera and do something still pop but much more experimental on the next one. With all of that said, there are many tracks on this album that you’ll have on repeat, and some which might make you chuckle.
“Do What You Do,” though a fun track, is something that Fergie should’ve recorded and then rejected from her album because it wasn’t good enough. And the fact that Katharine McPhee, the “Somewhere Over The Rainbow Girl” is singing it, makes it that much more laughable. The JoJo-ish “Over It” is a catchy song, but it’s also quite generic and bland. “Open Toes” is an okay dance track that’s got a lot of attitude, and Katharine claims the gays will love it. But I’ve heard an amazing extended remix of it that really just should’ve been the track on the album, and I have a feeling the gays will love it more.
“Better Off Alone” is one of the most gorgeous pop ballads I’ve heard in years. McPhee knows how to seduce you with her lower register that could both lull a baby to sleep and make any red-blooded man (or woman for that matter) in love with her in a matter of seconds. RCA will have done her a major injustice if this song is never a single. “Neglected” showcases impressive Mariah Carey-esque vocals I didn’t even know McPhee posessed, and I’ve seen every single episode of American Idol since season one.
There are a few vocal misfires however. Like on American Idol, Katharine uses her higher register entirely too liberally, and it’s painful. She only uses it on a few tracks, but she needs to learn that her voice can’t go there — at least not yet. It sounds high-pitched and shrill, and for someone who is very often above or below the pitch in live performances, that’s the last thing she wants to risk sounding like.
It’s also notable, that a lot of the album is very reminiscent of popular R&B from previous decades. Songs like “Each Other”, “Everywhere I Go”, and “Neglected” all sound like songs from the ’90s by artists like Monica and SWV that I wish were still being made today. I never thought it would come along in the package of a tall white girl with a beautiful smile and boobs great enough to turn me straight. Then there’s the undeniably hypnotic ’80s-sounding Nate Hills produced track “Dangerous” that’s just that — dangerous. I listened to it once before the album came out, and the rest of the night was spent repeating the song and dancing around in my basement with my cheap disco ball pretending I was in a club.
What’s funny is that this girl from American Idol who many probably won’t take seriously for years to come, showed up and outsang most of the pop and R&B divas of today with halfway decent material. Her voice has the soul of Kelly Clarkson, with a tone that could potentially rival the great Whitney Houston’s (another track from the album, “I Lost You”, was originally recorded for Whitney’s upcoming comeback album) with enough work, yet the emotion and phrasing of greats like Eva Cassidy and Barbra Streisand. She’s got lightyears to go as a live performer, and it’ll be interesting to see if she steps up the plate and really takes creative control on her next album with both a new direction and doing more of the writing herself.
It’s all up to Katharine. But thus far, she’s shown enough potential to be one of the most promising young vocal talents since the debut of Christina Aguilera in 1999.
• Barnes & Noble
If fans can look beyond her uncharacteristically risqué album cover, they will find that Season 5 American Idol runner-up Katharine McPhee is still sugar and spice underneath her vamp makeover. The unexpected new look, however, does compliment her unexpected new sound. Initially, it’s surprising to hear the Broadway baby — who during her Idol stint wowed the judges with her soaring rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and got footloose performing an acoustic guitar-anchored rendition of KT Tunstall’s “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” barefoot — belting “Open Toes,” a pop-and-R&B-kissed ode to sexy footwear. In fact, on her self-titled debut, McPhee sounds more like Christina Aguilera than fans will remember. Luckily, she has the pipes to support the junior diva comparison. For instance, the power ballad “Home” recalls X-tina’s “Beautiful,” and on the simmering, mid-tempo “Neglected,” Kat even cribs the Grammy-winning singer’s signature “Oh yeah” vocal trill. McPhee’s individuality, however, does shine through, particularly when she sings in her upper register, as on “Not Ur Girl,” a tasty slice of ska-tinged pop, and the tender ballad “Ordinary World.” Like Clarkson and Underwood before her, McPhee is one of Idol’s most promising graduates.