Jessica Simpson turns to country praying out loud for a career boost.

Jessica Simpson has been craftily dodging obscurity pretty much since her sophomore debut did not capitalize on all the promise she showed. While all the other pop divas that sprung up in the late nineties settled into their niche she seemed to be floundering. She wasn’t ballsy enough to be defiantly sexy like Aguilera, she wasn’t as sweet and wholesome as Mandy Moore and she didn’t have a tenth of the personality unraveling Britney had. So what’s a girl to do. She tried a lot of things including acting, playing stupid on reality TV and even going slutty with some daisy dukes and a halter top. Nothing seemed to work. Her last album honestly wasn’t that bad but it really wasn’t too great either. With the exception of her bold rip-off of early Madonna the album didn’t have much staying power. So now she employs another idea in her desperate bid for relevancy: she’s gone country. While other stars have gravitated to country I don’t think any of them have been this calculated. Jewel always seemed more country to me anyways.

“Come On Over”, the first single from the album isn’t bad at all. It’s not lightning in a bottle or anything but its respectable. Yet for someone who has really failed to make it in one genre you better be flawless when you hop to another one. She’s not. Her voice is a bit….hmm what’s the word…grating and every moment seems like a calculation. I’ll breath here, wail at this point and sound like a musical pout right at this spot. It’s a bit mechanical. The song never really connects. The desperation of needing someone that badly never makes an impact as she vaguely wails “I need you now, I need you bad”. This song just isn’t enough to sell the move from pop to country.

“Remember That” is actually a well written song but it rings so hollow with Jessica Simpson at the helm. It’s a song addressing moving on after being a victim of domestic violence but she doesn’t really fill it with any emotion. It’s just one big performance and the heart and soul is glaringly missing even if her strong voice isn’t. The fact is Jessica can sing her but off, but in a genre where it absolutely has to mean something she is obviously missing something. She pales in comparison to pretty much all the big voices of the genre from Carrie Underwood to Martina McBride. All you have to do is compare this to a song like McBride’s “Broken Wing” and the lack of nuance or power is clear.

“Sipping On History” is another example of a song that could have packed a big emotional wallop but languishes in Simpson’s delivery. Her voice slips around a little bit and I feel like she’s struggling to make the melody her own. I keep thinking “Carrie Underwood would have made this song amazing”. Maybe it’s not fair to compare her to other more established icons but when she does nothing to distinguish her stylistically from those people she’s leaving herself open. There is nothing on here that says “This is Jessica Simpson.”. The fact is that is the single defining characteristic of her career; her lack of identity. She sings all the songs Martina and Carrie but does them in a noticeably inferior fashion. The song itself is well written and the lyrics are emotionally charged. Hopefully someone will do this song justice.

I could write a long review detailing all the songs on this album but quite frankly that would be redundant. Good song, good voice, good lyrics minus all the heart pretty much sums up this album. An example of how faceless she is comes on the very last track. She sings against country music icon Dolly Parton and she even as a back-up singer shines through and becomes the highlight of the song. Simpson’s voice is just as strong but she doesn’t have her ability to captivate the listener. The interplay between the two at the end though is a highlight of the album.

Pop music was actually a better venue for Jessica Simpson. The fancy production and feel good vibe gave the listener a sense of personality and masked the fact none of the fun was really coming from her. With all the glitter and lights stripped away we are left with a singer who is adequate, even competent but unable to fill the space between the lyrics and the music. The only exception I can think of is “I Wanna Love You Forever”, her very first hit. The other problem is for a singer who clearly is a bit weak in song delivery why would you load the album with one sappy ballad after another. It’s like an advertisement of her weakness. Some singers can’t really deliver a club thumper (Brian McKnight comes to mind) so a parade of ballads is appropriate and even desirable. When somebody turns a ballad into an exercise of glorified demo singing why would you put so many on an album that clearly needs to succeed. Overall, I don’t recommend this album because there are so many better ones. You should have Underwood’s Carnival Ride and countless other country female albums before considering this one.