Sorry for the obnoxiously long title. Anyway, I decided to review all three albums of the finalists from The Voice‘s first season, as well as the EP from one of my two other favorites that didn’t make the finals, but I think they made it as far as the semi-finals (if I’m remembering correctly, anyway). By the way, I made the image below myself. Haha, sorry if it’s blinding for the eyes. I tried to get the original screencap from a commercial from The Voice‘s second season, but I couldn’t remember which episode and where in the episode, and I didn’t feel like watching everything all over again just to find that screen, so I made my own. And since the original didn’t include Xenia Martinez’s EP, I decided to just throw that in there too, haha.
Since I’m going to be reviewing all three albums in one entry, and they’re all of different artists, I’m not going to go into huge detail about each one and just provide my usual ratings breakdown.
First up, we’ve got Javier Colon’s album,
Originality: **
Sound: ****
Quality of Music: ***
CD Cover Art: ****
Re-playability of Songs: ***
OVERALL GRADE: B-/C+ – I can’t really seem to decide.
The music on this album really sounded very summery. It also reminded me a lot of boy bands from the ’90s. There were also songs that reminded me of Usher, Nelly, and Jason Mraz. Not bad for me, since I admit that I think any music from before 2002 was better than what artists make now, and most of the songs I like listening to are from the ’60s-’90s range. When it comes down to it though, while I don’t think this album is bad by any means, there’s also nothing really on it that just pops out at you—though that’s one of those problems that can easily be remedied for future albums. (I will admit to have expected more for someone who won The Voice, but at the same time I always thought his voice was more generic compared to the other singers who were on the show.)
Next is what I thought of Dia Frampton’s album, Red:
Originality: ***
Sound: *****
Quality of Music: ***
CD Cover Art: *****
Re-playability of Songs: ***
OVERALL GRADE: B
I actually had never heard of her before her appearance on The Voice, but apparently she used to sing with her sister Meg Frampton as part of a duo called “Meg & Dia.” I actually sampled some of their stuff, and the sound is similar, but I think when she sang with her sister there was something more “Evanescence-y” about the music. I’m not sure which I like better, or if I even prefer one over the other. I do like how clear her voice sounds. It’s a very refreshing sound—and in a way kind of sounds like a much younger girl singing?
The songs on this album were good, but it was kind of a weird thing for me like Kelly Clarkson’s Stronger album, where I just couldn’t make sense of why I couldn’t leave this album on repeat. It’s not awful or anything. Maybe it’s because I can’t handle too much of a good thing? Hahaha, I don’t know!
Moving on though, here’s my thoughts on Fear Nothing, by Beverly McClellan:
Originality: **
Sound: ****
Quality of Music: **
CD Cover Art: ****
Re-playability of Songs: *
OVERALL GRADE: C
From what I saw on TV, I got the vibe that Beverly is a really down-to-earth person. I also got goosebumps on a couple of her performances from The Voice. Unfortunately, as much as I like her, I can only take her singing in those small doses. Listening to Fear Nothing only further affirmed this sentiment. To me, she pretty much sounded the same in every song. She also doesn’t sing in a genre of music that I like listening to—I’m not a huge Blues fan. That genre in itself is something I can only take in small doses too, haha. If you like the Blues though, you’ll probably have a different opinion of this CD.
Out of these three artists, I was personally rooting for Dia and Beverly during season 1—Dia for her voice and Beverly for her awesome personality. Aside from these two girls, I had also been rooting hard for two others—Vicci and Xenia Martinez. (They have the same last name, but I don’t believe they’re in any way related.)
I don’t think Vicci ever came out with an album post-The Voice, though I think she did plug out one album the year before. I’m not sure if that was with a professional label or not though. I really liked how powerful her voice was, and if I can take what I saw of her on screen as any indication, she seemed to have a good personality as well.
Xenia was by far my favorite out of them all though. I was disappointed she didn’t win the show, but at the same time it was understandable since I think she was still growing—she didn’t always seem comfortable on stage and she’s kind of on the shy side. That’s okay though, because Blake Shelton is one awesome man and he’s kept in touch with her even after everything ended. She’s recently released an EP called Sing You Home and I love it!! I was mildly surprised how mainstream it sounded (very Colbie Calliat), but she definitely has remained true to her dreamy/raspy sound. I love how her singing sounds much older than her actual age.
Since it’s an EP, I won’t go into my usual ratings bit, but I will say that if you haven’t heard it yet, please do check it out!! You can sample and purchase it either on Amazon or iTunes! Support this girl!! (And yes, since I don’t think her EP is as promoted as the other three’s albums, I intentionally made her album cover slightly bigger. Hahaha.)
Well, that’s all I have for today as far as entries. I’ve got a pretty busy day tomorrow, but I’ll see if I can squeeze in an entry or two, seeing as how I’ve managed to write an entry every day so far this week! Catch you all later!
Cutting Edge Creativity 