Remember that conversation the bloop had a while back about American Idol? We had discussed the price that one pays when entering huge "talent" shows, the pros and cons to getting rich/famous fast vs. the longer road of paving an artistic path on one's own terms, and it got pretty heated [in a good way].

This is a follow up to that topic.

"My guy" [the one that I'd wanted to win last season, AKA the only season that I will ever have watched] Bo Bice's album came out yesterday. I haven't heard it yet, probably never will...might sample a few tracks for shits and giggles. However, it doesn't surprise me to read this scathing review from All Music Guide. A juicy excerpt:

"So what did 19 Entertainment, exec producer Clive Davis, and the whole American Idol album crew do for Bo's album? They threw everything that worked for Bo on the show out the window — the Southern rock, the blues, the classicism — and shoehorned him into a bland alt-rock setting somewhere between Nickelback and Bon Jovi. Clearly, the idea behind this is that what appeals to the show's audience won't appeal to the record-buying public, particularly to teens, but instead of building on the audience Bo had on the show, The Real Thing alienates them.

Kelly Clarkson may have gotten hipper, sexier, and dancier on her debut, but that worked, not just because she had good material and charm, but because it appealed to her core teen audience. Bo was a bit older and appropriately had an older following, listeners who pined to hear '70s-styled pop and rock — and not just because there wasn't much of it out there, but because Bo did it well, and he sounded distinctive doing it. Not only is that sound nowhere to be heard on The Real Thing, but Bo no longer sounds distinctive. He sounds exactly the same as every other mainstream male rock singer in 2005 — all of his songs have indistinct verses that surge into an anthemic chorus where all the heavy guitars kick in, inching the volume up to a point where it becomes a glossy wall of digital sound that drowns out his vocals.

The music is tightly wound and meticulously clean, the antithesis to Bice's loose, earthy appeal. Most of all, the songs — even the handful of good, professional tunes, both, not coincidentally, co-written by either Jon Bon Jovi or his longtime partner Richie Sambora — all sound exactly the same, following the same flow, bearing the same dynamics. This isn't modernizing Bo Bice — this is neutering him, giving him an unwelcome extreme makeover that doesn't fit."

The rest of the review is quite an eye-opening read. [I consider following stories like these as "homework" for Corvo].

Oh, but wait - gotta add this other possibly juicier tidbit in:

"If Bice were teamed with a bunch of new singer/songwriters like DeGraw or John Mayer, he would have had melodic, classically styled pop/rock songs that he could have sung better than their authors. Instead, 19 paired him with Ben Moody from Evanescence, Ashlee Simpson's collaborator Kara DioGuardi, and the hack of all hacks, Chad Kroeger from Nickelback — the man who equates love with being willing to eat off the floor — for a set of heavily processed, cumbersome, mildly active rock that's too boring to be memorable."

I find it interesting that the American Idol production company allowed their "golden girl" Carrie Underwood to be herself and to go with the genre in which she fits [country pop], but didn't do that for Bo. I just learned the other day that some of the huge labels will actually sign "the competition" and then promptly shelve the newer band, so that the artist can't take money away from the label's "pet" artists. This doesn't surprise me at all, and I can't help but conspiracy-theorize about what happens to a lot of the American Idol "winners." How some of them seem to do so well, but others just...fade away, even though the winner alone isn’t the only one who gets "signed."

Now, Bo does have his own fans, and he may receive better reviews and press from other publications, but this isn't a very good start. I also find it sad that the track listing shows that he only contributed to two of the songs. He barely wrote any of his own material, and that's [I believe] one of the saddest things about it all. I do hope that he proves me wrong and finds a way to rise above this corporate corner that he's put himself into. But to me, his "success" is beginning to smell like record label "chum."

Oh, and is it just me, or does he sort of look like Constantine now? Creepy.

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