Angel Eyes

It's hard to figure out just exactly why Tamara Walker is signed to Curb Records, a primarily country label. Her voice certainly can wield a healthy swagger when she wants it to, but the production on her debut, Angel Eyes, is about as far from rural as it gets. There are deep beats, looped grooves, big string pads, power ballads, trite lyrics, and vocal acrobatics galore. Sounds pretty much like pop, no? Eventually you arrive at some pedal steel and fiddle -- though not until about halfway through the cuts -- and it all begins to make a little more sense. But only for a few tracks. Then you're back to remix central to close the album. Now to be fair, Walker has a lovely voice, no doubt about it. And the production isn't bad, necessarily. It's just rather formulaic and pedestrian, as is the songwriting. Indeed, "Didn't We Love" is a radio-ready, Top 40 chart-storming piece of catchy sweetness. Were you, perhaps, expecting more from a lady who first gained some attention with the film Coyote Ugly? Perhaps not.