HiphopRnbSoul.com

Tony Award nominated Elisabeth Withers was a shining light as "Shug Avery" in the Broadway musical The Color Purple, but as a pop singer, she falls short.

hiphoprnbsoul rating:

Download this album

Despite the fact that she'd previously recorded dance hits before hitting it big in the Oprah Winfrey-produced production, Withers and her gorgeous and powerful voice is all over the place and nowhere at the same time. Her debut album It Can Happen To Anyone is an unmemorable excursion into pop music that fails to take the listener past the fact that Withers is a theater performer.

There's more to a pop album than good vocals. There's got to be a pop sensibility and Withers, a musical theater star status doesn't compute. Obviously using Heather Headley as an inspiration, Withers perfectly enunciated lyrics and preachy, soap box fare ("The World Ain't Ready") is a good example of why artists need to recognize there's a different approach to the two outlets. As a result, all eleven tracks come off sounding like... musical theater accompanied by bland production.

If Withers truly wants to pursue this route she really needs to find her voice and artistic identity as a pop singer. But if this was just her agent's idea, then she should chalk it up to bad advice and go back to her budding theater career. 

Download:  "Be With You"

  To purchase CDs, click on the cover art or title link. To legally download, click on the iTunes logo. If you do not have iTunes, you can download it here by clicking the "download iTunes" logo above.