Michelle Branch doesn't make me happy now

In the CD booklet of her new Hotel Paper, there are 24 photographs of Michelle Branch. I know, only 24. There's the longing gaze, the knowing gaze and the introspective gaze.\nUnfortunately, there is no I-just-made-a-good-record gaze. That might be a pose she's incapable of making.\nBranch's follow-up to her 2001 debut, The Spirit Room, continues with the dull pop-rock that makes Nelly Furtado look like the next Joni Mitchell. Maverick should have included a warning label that reads "Not to be listened to after Polly Jean Harvey or Courtney Love."\nOf course, in the "American Idol" era, likability is just as important, if not more important, than talent. Perhaps that was the selling point of this record. Perhaps singing "The Game of Love" on Santana's Shaman record legitimizes her in others' eyes.\nRegardless, she doesn't come off as likable. Instead, she comes off as just another vain diva. She's not very original either as she rips off Stevie Nicks so whole on one song that she hires Nicks confidant Sheryl Crow to sing it with her. And that's the best song on the record.\nAfter that, it's all yearning and devotion.\nBut not about taking more pictures of her. Surprisingly.