Music Review: Brooke Hogan's fine voice foiled by an overdose of production tricks
By: RON HARRIS
Associated Press
07/28/09 10:10 AM EDT
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| In this CD cover image released by Sobe records, "The Redemption," is shown. (AP Photo/Sobe) ** NO SALES ** (AP) |
Brooke Hogan, "The Redemption" (SoBe)
Brooke Hogan may know best on her reality show, but she should have known better than churning out the lackluster album "The Redemption." It's all tricks, and few treats.
On most songs it's hard to tell where the vocoder and production tricks end and Hogan's own voice begins. This is bad, since Hogan has a perfectly fine pop music voice. But she lets the folks behind the mixing board overpower her to a fault.
Hogan comes out swinging on "Dear Mom." "I love you. But you gotta change," Brooke says in heartfelt fashion before launching into a talk-rap-sing tirade. It might have been a poignant touching track, and obviously self-referential given her own battles with mother Linda, but there's so much dirty south "crunk" production going on it quickly dissolves into a mess of Nintendo-esque tones and synthesizer stabs.
The best songs here are the dance club-paced "Handcuffed" and "Strip." The faster tempo takes Hogan away from the hackneyed hip-hop realm and into a space where her voice can soar and production tricks don't sound so out of place.
CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: Miami rapper Stack$ helps out Hogan on "Falling," a smooth songs track with a nice hook. Stack$ is the best of the featured artists on "The Redemption," which includes cameos from Urban Mystic and Flo Rida.
