Kris Allen

On his post-Idol debut, the season 8 champion sniffs around a musical identity but never quite curls up in one. Despite scoring writing credits on an impressive nine of these 13 tracks, Kris Allen gets himself stylistically lost somewhere between Fly White Guy Avenue (”Can’t Stay Away”) and Bleeding Heart Boulevard (”The Truth”), while rarely visiting original territory. He’s also got a tendency to overstuff the lyrics; even his most interesting tune, the handclappy ”Alright With Me,” beats the word centers of the brain into submission. It falls to Allen’s appealing pipes (that adorable little hitch in his voice!) to sew this patchwork of pop production-for-hire together, and they ultimately provide the album’s strongest selling point. Lack of originality, however, suits Allen just fine on his rerecorded cover of Kanye West’s ”Heartless,” which now features an ”In the Air Tonight” drum fill and bass line, and is awesome. B-

Download This: Alright with Me

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