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ALBUM : Unstoppable - Rascal Flatts
HOT PICK - Unstoppable |
 Rascal Flatts managed to keep it at bay through most of the 2000s, even as they turned into the biggest act in country music, but with their sixth album, Unstoppable, they succumb, trading their "aw shucks" persona for a title that Michael Jackson somehow missed in his King of Pop phase and acting like superstars, not boys next door made good. That humble streak always kept Rascal Flatts relatable, even when they went multi-platinum and drifted into colorless country-pop, and without it the group sounds a little bloated.
Of course, it doesn't help that almost nothing about Unstoppable is modest, not the sounds, not the sentiments — only the songs, which can't withstand these muscle-bound arrangements, whether they're sports-bar party anthems like "Summer Nights," glistening, tightly wound crossover pop like "Close" and its breezy counterpart "She'd Be California," or arena ballads like the first single, "Here Comes Goodbye." Despite a lot of driving, sequenced rhythms, most of the record feels as if it belongs to the latter category, thanks to how every track comes across as waves of gleaming sound, topped by the group's harmonies but with no strong supporting structure. This overwhelming smoothness would be pleasant if the album weren't so puffed up, if Rascal Flatts weren't so certain of their own invincibility that they didn't realize they didn't have either the tunes or the charm this time around.
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ALBUM: For your entertainment - Adam Lambert
HOT PICK - Whataya want from me |
 With Adam Lambert, American Idol finally got a finalist who was completely, utterly contemporary, aware of what’s hip in music and culture, aware of how music is made and consumed in 2009, never seeming to try to follow fads or set trends, just embodying the time. Mercifully, he came in second to Kris Allen, for if he came in first he may have had to tame his self-styled glamazon ways. A second place finish allowed Lambert to come out of the closet and indulge in his penchant for theater on his debut, For Your Entertainment -- which isn’t quite the same thing as camp, for if Adam Lambert is anything he’s earnest about his dress-up, never winking at the audience because he doesn’t think there’s much funny about his glitter and mascara: that’s just what pop stars are supposed to do.
He’s learned that by listening to his stacks of Queen and Bowie records, from watching old MTV videos on YouTube, from living in a present that always competes with the ever-present past, so he takes it all at face value, mixing up arena rock guitars, new wave, disco, operatic overdubs with a constant electro pulse, glassy modern R&B, and the vague Euro strains of new millennium teen pop. All this makes For Your Entertainment very, very modern in a way few mainstream pop albums are in 2009.
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