While I’ve lost my keys, J.D. Matthews over at Musical Ramblings seems to think that Katharine McPhee has lost quite a bit more than that. Here’s what he has to say about her two-side single (“I Lost You,” which will not appear on her album, and “Dangerous,” which will):
It’s almost as if the single’s producers got together and said “hey, let’s go find the two crappiest songs we can get, throw a shorted-out synthesizer program into the computer, and put out the most poorly instrumented and packaged performance we possibly can.” Katharine’s vocals are spot-on on both songs. The only problem with that is that you can’t HEAR her half the time…And the musical accompaniment quite often sounds like my little sister when she was five banging on a busted Casio keyboard.
While I disagree with J.D. about Kat’s vocals being “spot-on” (true, she may technically be hitting the notes to precision, but her voice becomes weak, tinny and nasal, taking on an almost pre-adolescent quality, when reaching for those soprano notes), I agree that for the money that RCA must have to be shilling out for the likes of Nate Hills, Uness, The Underdogs et. al., the results so far (with the exception of “Love Story,” which I actually think is really good) are not that impressive.
J.D. also believes that the single is obviously a “gap-filler,” a sort of conciliatory release for all those people who missed the memo about her CD delay (indeed, my local media outlets were promoting her CD as just having been release on December 19). Interesting. I’ve been thinking something similar myself about the whole marketing strategy surrounding Katharine McPhee. Whenever you see Taylor Hicks, he’s, you know, performing–whether it’s at pre-booked gigs like the Orange Bowl or Christmas in Washington, showing up unexpectedly to accompany Snoop Dogg or Widespread Panic, or sitting in with jam bands. Katharine’s made a few singing appearances, too (most notably CBS’s Home for the Holidays special and the Tournament of Roses parade), but she can unquestionably most often be found posing on a red carpet or in a magazine. It’s almost as if RCA needs to market her as a celebutante first, to establish her as a fixture in the public eye, before releasing her album (either that or the girl just reeeeally likes having her picture taken). That could work, but then again, Paris Hilton’s CD didn’t fare so well.
Which brings me to J.D.’s final reflection:
…[S]ince the beginning of last year’s Idol, she hasn’t appeared to really know who she is. There’s so much about her that looks like a mask. Whether it’s her sultry look, her “I can swallow my own fist” smile, or her performances, you’re never really sure what you’re going to get out of her.
It’s true; Katharine’s image has undergone several drastic transformations, and she hasn’t even been famous for a whole year yet. From the sweet, wholesome girl with somewhat dowdy fashion sense, to the sultry siren who flaunted her assets but still maintained an aura of class (at least with regards to her physical appearance; her personality’s another story), to the omnipresent micro-minied, kissy-faced, squat-posing, leg-spreading Katharine of present, Kat’s appearance is evolving and transforming more quickly than necessary. Her vocal style has been overhauled, too; she listed belters like Whitney, Christina and Mariah as her personal idols early on, then became Queen of the Standards on American Idol, talked about putting out an album that could bring jazz and blues back to the Top 40…and then turned around and reinvented herself as the new diva of “rhythm pop,” a kind of hybrid between bubblegum sweetness and urban edge. I’ve heard her songs; she’s basically Lawrence Welk-ified Beyonce, with a few touches thrown in here and there for “street cred” (most prominently, her incredibly affected verb conjugation; “Love Story” contains the lyric “you was flirting with some guy”). No doubt Katharine has a fair amount of loyal fans who are enamored of her talent and beauty and who will stick with her even if she decides to release an album of polka music, but as Taylor’s recent sales numbers have proven, your fan base is only your first step. Kat will need to reach out to new fans in order to reap numbers even close to Taylor’s, let alone Chris’s, and add into the mix the fact that some of her Idol fans may be confused or turned off by her new musical identity, and…I have no idea what’s going to happen with this album. I can’t predict a flop (breathy-voiced pseudo-R&B is pretty popular these days), but I don’t see sales numbers blowing everyone away, either. Then again, I could be wrong on either count.
And in normal circumstances, I’d even throw out the old line that Taylor fans know so well–“it’s not about the sales, it’s about the music”–but Katharine’s songs seem so tailor-made for What’s! Hot! Right! Now! that she needs the airplay, the TRL appearances, the magazine covers and the red carpet walks to even come close to matching the career of a Beyonce, a Jessica or a Britney in her heyday. Besides, this style of music doesn’t tend to have that long of a shelf-life, and that’s even assuming that the performer doesn’t outgrow it–no TRL viewer is going to want to watch a 35-year-old Katharine shake her booty in a music video; by that time she’ll have to have moved on to singing a more timeless form of music if she wants longevity in the music business. But then again, there’s always acting, which she’s been vocal about wanting to segue into. Without the celebutante aura, though, Kat will lose a bit of her luster, and I’d hate to see her have to Janice her way onto a show like The Surreal Life, or act in fetid movies like Employee of the Month to keep her star shining (no, I really would hate to see it; maybe I don’t like her personality much, but hey, I don’t have to pay to see her movies). When the full album is released, we’ll have more to judge on, but for now, I doubt that Katharine can sustain a musical career on what I’ve heard so far. Then again, she’s already proven herself adept at overhauling her image in the blink of an eye, so maybe there’s hope for her yet.
