Secret's Out

Secret's Out is a great example of how easy it is to step over the line from ambitious to biting off more than one can chew. Jen Elliott has a decent enough voice, full of emotive timbre, but the problem with her debut isn't the fact that she sometimes oversings as much as what she is oversinging. She bounces from jazzy torch songs to pop to rock to even a very ill-advised funk-ified track ("Move") that has the misfortune of leading off the album, and this lack of direction thins out an artist whose backing band's generic playing doesn't do her any favors either. With proper guidance, a producer who could rein her in and have her concentrate on what she does best (light rock), and competent backing musicians, Elliott could make a strong album. But this isn't it.