Entertainment One Music
Pop, 2015

Hysteria is an album full of old-school pop songs – the ones that would have blazed up the charts in the 1990’s, perhaps. Perhaps Katharine McPhee should get some credit for sticking to the genre she is comfortable with, instead of hiring some rappers to make her songs more marketable these days. However, it’s hard to warm up to most of the songs here, even through nostalgia-tinged goggles, because they are so generic and forgettable. Well-produced and well-sung, but yikes, so forgettable.

Despite the presence of Ryan Tedder, Sia, and the likes lending their songwriting mojo, the bulk of the tracks here feel like they could have been sung by anyone and nobody will notice the difference. Katharine McPhee is a competent singer, but she needs good materials to shine. Here, the strongest tracks are actually shoved to the back of the album – the forlorn ballad Round Your Little Finger, the fierce and sultry Only One, and the EDM-tinged Damage Control (a quite amusing and self aware track, considering her latest domestic drama) – hence it is easy to fall asleep before the good time starts.

And even then, the good time ends just when I am really getting into the groove, leaving me feeling neither here nor there. Sigh.