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Katherine McPhee - Unbroken By Brian Campbell  |
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If hindsight really is 20/20, then Katherine McPhee should have won American Idol’s 5th Season. Sure, the seasons produced some quality successes in Chris Daughtry and Bucky Covington – hell, even Kellie Pickler, but if you were to look at McPhee’s running mates in the final three – Elliot Yamin and eventual winner Taylor Hicks, it should be painfully clear that the game show has no idea what it’s doing. Yamin has done nothing and Hicks hasn’t fared much better, as his debut record sold the lowest in the history of all American Idol winners. He has since been released from Arista Records. By comparison, McPhee, since the end of AI, has went onto reach number two on Billboards 200 chart, sell over 350,000 copies of her eponymous debut, star on both the small and big, as well as the silver screen.
Now you can add the next success to that list – her sophomore disc “Unbroken.”
As the old adage goes, if you thought the pop songstress was good before, you haven’t seen anything yet. “Unbroken” finds McPhee at her all around best, and is her best vocal performance since she lit up the AI stage four years ago. With this record she has only gotten better. She sounds as if she has grown, as evidenced through the mature, passionate vibes this record emits. “Unbroken” is proof that she is capable of growing into her massive potential. McPhee shows enormous strides in the right direction with widely accessible and surely relatable adult contemporary pop ballads (‘Faultline,’ ‘Anybody’s Heart,’ ‘Unbroken’), but she doesn’t just pigeonhole herself on “Unbroken.” ‘Had It All,’ ‘Lifetime’ and ‘Brand New Key’ showcase her fun side, her ability to infuse a bit of bounce and flair into her music, so as to not keep things stagnant. The ultra playful and animated liveliness of the album close (‘Brand New Key’) is both refreshing and rejuvenating, proving McPhee doesn’t always have to be heartfelt and somber.
We have established the fact that “Unbroken” is McPhee’s strongest effort to date, but it is also one of the best records anyone linked to AI has released in sometime. Maybe that show isn’t all bad after all. Well, that’s an argument for another time.
Grade: B
Listen to: ‘Had It All,’ ‘Brand New Key’
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