Yes, it’s Wasting Wednesday!
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[4.14]
Katherine St Asaph: INT. MARK BURNETT’S OFFICE – 2013. Mark Burnett has just downloaded a copy of Same Trailer Different Park. On his computer screen is an old Nashville Star Wikipedia page. On his desk, coaches’ notes on Voice winner Cassadee Pope’s voice, schtick, strengths and target market. The rest of the office has been smashed to shambles. He is in tears.
[5]
Alfred Soto: Wasting all that voice, more like, on a cut-and-paste “country” song.
[3]
Anthony Easton: A fantastic scorcher of a voice that could do with a bit more modulation and emotional control. I am not sure if she is angry or rueful, or just pretending to be Miranda Lambert.
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Brad Shoup: Kinda country, but the good stuff savors the details, not the drama. The guitars sound annoyed even to be asked aboard. Pope’s working about four vocal tracks, each of which holds the melody like an egg in a spoon. This is baby food.
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Patrick St. Michel: The relatively bare-bones first verse matches up with the down-and-out lyrics quite well, but the more Cassadee Pope tries to blow this song up, the worse it gets.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: Oh, god, I’m imagining Pope’s fantastic voice doing this song in something like her former pop-punk style and it’s potentially orgasmic. And yet, as it is, it’s curiously unmoving, antiseptic even. I find it hard to believe she’s been anywhere near the top of a bottle lately, let alone the bottom. Going country shouldn’t sound like an affectation. The style’s been incorporated into mainstream pop’s DNA but one must show more commitment than this to do it right.
[5]
Jonathan Bradley: As her Faith Hill cover showed, her move from buoyant pop-punk to lush balladry was one both natural and potent for Cassadee Pope: single-minded emotionalism doesn’t lose any of its power when you blow out the backing. The performance isn’t Pope’s best though. She doesn’t lack the ability to go big, but she also doesn’t sound down-and-out enough to convincingly start her plaint “at the bottom of bottle.” If there perhaps aren’t that many tears wasted, then, the few she does shed are well served by an alt-rock chorus that strikes its poses with enough conviction to compensate.
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