2/5
Surprise, surprise: another debut by an almost-famous ‘American Idol’ hopeful. Though knighted by Simon Cowell as the most brilliant contender in 2007’s sixth season, Melinda Doolittle fell short of Jordin Sparks’ teen-queen appeal; post-competition Coming Back to You, Doolittle takes two years of third-place bruises and shoves her bluesy, big-mama voice straight through a pile of classic covers. Too bad she picks the trickiest tracks alive ‘mdash; mastered by the likes of Aretha Franklin and modern heavyweights like Macy Gray ‘mdash; to slip, once again, just a few rungs below her husky-smooth idols.
Doolittle’s television days haunt her juvenile tracks, ghosting along with a pronounced lack of that Simon-cited confidence. Doolittle revs herself in Carey ecstasy on ‘I Will Be,’ shaking heaven’s chains and calling on all God’s glory, only to climax pre-chorus and smother us with ‘I will be bold/ Follow my faith/ To a higher Lord.’
In a similar vein, ‘Declaration of Love’ channels Ella Fitzgerald’s molten-flaming soul, trembling dramatically ‘to the heavens above.’ But sure enough, Doolittle’s church-choir momentum picks up recklessly and without warning, leaving us caught between ‘hallelujah!’ and a skip to the next track.
The issue isn’t Doolittle’s jazzy, swinging vocals ‘mdash; it’s a lack of personality. While ‘Idol’ alumni Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood compose, co-write or outsource original compositions, Doolittle’s songs have all been done before, not to mention in unassailable splendor; like so, Back to You slips into a stream of identical rhythms where singing louder doesn’t necessarily translate to emotional strength. For now, she’s just another misfire in a long line of less-than-striking stabs at idolatry.