Kiwi singer-songwriter Jamie McDell. Photo / Stephen Parker
Kiwi singer-songwriter Jamie McDell. Photo / Stephen Parker
The first artist comparison that springs to mind when listening to this second album from local lass Jamie McDell is Australian songstress Missy Higgins.
Perhaps that's no surprise when you read that her producer and sometimes co-writer for Ask Me Anything is Australian Stuart Crichton. Crichton never worked with Higgins,but his CV includes Kylie Minogue, Delta Goodrem, and Brian McFadden, and he's taken McDell's songs and given them the same sort of pop-by-numbers makeover.
Watch the music video for Dumb by Jamie McDell:
McDell was endearingly sweet and exuberant on her first album Six Strings and a Sailboat, with something Taylor Swift-ian about her girl next door approach. On Ask Me Anything, she's rightly grown up a bit, and most notably expanded her vocal textures and approaches, along with introducing a hint of Americana. But her personality disappears somewhat here, and she becomes a bit of Miss Higgins, a bit of Miss Swift, and a bit pedestrian.
Her voice is perfectly pleasant, the songs well-constructed and polished up nicely, but they tend to blend into each other, and slowly become like the aural equivalent of all those Nicholas Sparks film adaptations.
In fact every song here would be a very strong candidate for the theme song of any of those films, but they lack the identity and edge that make Swift's tracks so successful.
Artist: Jamie McDell Album: Ask Me Anything Label: Universal Verdict: Not quite Taylor Swift.
