Don't spread the McPhever

Katharine McPhee should have beaten Taylor Hicks for "American Idol." Yeah, that's right, I proudly watch the show. Katharine McPhee actually fits the role of the "American Idol" much in the way Kelly Clarkson did in the first season of the show. She even has the pipes and the image to translate into commercial success and to be something special, but in her self-titled debut album, McPhee presents a dichotomy between the big old-fashioned vocal numbers and modern pop. The album suffers from the lack of an identity and misses out in the process.\nThe modern pop portion of the album is a good step for her if she wants to reach her target audience: teenage girls. But McPhee has yet to develop a personality, and this is an obvious flaw in her more modern-sounding songs. While Clarkson went the pop-rock route, McPhee delves into hip-hop, dance pop and R&B. In the end, she just ends up sounding like she is doing a bad impression of either Beyonce ("Do What You Do") or Christina Aguilera ("Dangerous"). Some songs are better than others, like the album's first two tracks -- "Love Story," which has a cool '70s groove, followed by the catchy single, "Over It." However, musical sins like "Open Toes" (which is a high-speed hip-hop tune about, yes, open-toed sandals) and slow jam "Each Other" bring the album to a halt like an anchor.\nThe old-fashioned ballads, which are more of what she sang on "American Idol," fit her much better. Similar to her well-known cover of "Somewhere, Over the Rainbow," these songs bring back memories of her "American Idol" days. Though these songs allow her to display her singing capabilities and show her fans the Katharine they know, they reach an older crowd than her target audience and are poorly written run-of-the-mill pop ballads. Among this group ("Home," "Ordinary World" and "Better Off Alone"), there seems to be no standouts or defining moments.\nAt this point, McPhee lacks the personality and charisma of "Idol" mate Clarkson. She also clearly lacks the quality songwriting and producing that Clarkson has. However, in "Not Ur Girl," a song Katharine wrote herself, she shows her personality in what is her own "Miss Independent." So although McPhee is unsure of her musical identity and has put out a second-rate debut album, don't lose the McPhever just yet. She is still only 22 and has the potential for the kind of success Clarkson has had. We will just have to wait for a sophomore effort, since her first album is an unusual mix of mediocrity.