t's hard to imagine any artists having more pressure to come out of the gate impressively than the winners of American Idol.
An average weekly audience of 30 million watched Glendale's Jordin Sparks win the sixth season of the Fox TV series this year. The recording arm of Idol, 19 Recordings, now has taken Sparks under its wing for her highly anticipated debut.
Working with 19 Recordings (and Jive Records) has its good side and bad.
The company, part of British entertainment wizard Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment, has the marketing power to get Idol alumni Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken on the radio. But if an artist doesn't have a clear artistic vision, his or her identity can get lost in the Idol machinery.
At 17, Sparks has been wisely steered toward a style that samples pop and R&B sounds for this CD, in stores Nov. 20.
Sparks shows she can muster up a soulful edge that sounds mature beyond her years on the CD's debut single, Tattoo. An appealing song with an anthemlike chorus, Tattoo is the CD's first single for a reason: It is hands-down the strongest of the album's 13 tracks, which include a new "bonus" version of This Is My Now, performed on the Idol finale in May.
Although no other track really rivals Tattoo, there are several songs that show the promise that Sparks' career holds.
The pop-edged One Step at a Time finds her energetically spouting a philosophy that could apply to several areas of life: "There's no need to rush / It's like learning to fly or falling in love." She dials in a dash of soul near the end, with the producers mixing in layers of her vocals. She nails some very high notes as the song fades, reminding listeners of her range.
Sparks sings with a deeper, fuller voice on the verses of the rock-flavored power ballad Permanent Monday but goes higher in the chorus. As the song crashes to an end, Sparks throws in the type of vocal gymnastics favored by young singers who later outgrow those tricks.
Her duet with another strong young singer, Chris Brown, on No Air, is decidedly pop, complete with synthesizer and drum machines. The two complement each other well in the hummable song until the producers overload things with strings and vocals going in five directions.
Freeze, one of a handful of songs co-written by Sparks, is an ethereal mix of pop and R&B showcasing some of her most mature, soaring singing. The piano-fueled ballad Next to You leans more toward teenybopper pop with a lighter vocal treatment.
When the album moves into full ear-candy mode, on Just for the Record, Sparks shows plenty of confidence in treading the line between blatant pop and R&B.
She shows off her softer side on a mellow track with an awkward title, God Loves Ugly. Her early point on the road to maturation shows when she allows herself to be pushed into diva territory that's best left to older singers.
The 19 Recordings machine takes over and makes the unfortunate decision to have Sparks do a Britney Spears imitation on the dance track Young and in Love, complete with annoying, pinging synthesizer. Sparks accomplishes little more by staying in a similar sound for Shy Boy.
Sparks and her backing band sound a little too much like Coldplay in Now You Tell Me, while deep blasts of synthesizer reminiscent of Mannheim Steamroller (of all acts) detract from fragile singing on See My Side.
Those four weaker songs make this less than a stellar debut, but the CD's many stronger spots show Sparks has the vocal skills to make her mark over the long run.
- Larry Rodgers
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ae/articles/1111cdspin1111sparks.html?&wired
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