Interscope
Urban Contemporary, 2014

Music Speaks sounds more like desperate wishful thinking than the glorious title of a debut effort, as poor Candice Glover qualifies as the American Idol winner whom, to date, nobody really cares about. It’s not because she is not talented, she just happened to be on a season where the viewers tune out in droves. Or maybe it’s because the poor dear has the backup singer syndrome – she has the voice, but she doesn’t have the aggressive charisma to force people stand up and pay attention to her. The poor dear seems destined to fail from the start.

It is basically a toss up whether it is a good thing or a bad, that the people behind this album didn’t force her to do unnatural contortions to become the next Rihanna. The songs here play to her strengths, but this strength translates to very competent but bland vocal performances. There are some pleasant ballads, some inoffensive uptempo tunes, but nothing here really rocks the boat. Even a reprise of her show-stopping performance on her season, her cover of The Cure’s Lovesong, feels subdued due to all the studio processing done on the whole thing.

So, oh well, Music Speaks – it’s smooth, competent, pleasant, to the point that it’s so competent that it becomes bland and personality-free in the process. And here I thought Kris Allen was forgettable.