Pretty Devil

Chronique

From the so-so material, production, and arrangements on this album, you wouldn't guess that this was the same singer/songwriter responsible for "Morning Dew." Recorded in Nashville, it's a forgettable period piece, falling somewhere between singer/songwriter folk-rock and MOR country-pop. Dobson has a nice high voice, but it's not outstanding, and certainly can't compensate for lukewarm songs, whether written by herself or others. And that brings up another issue with this LP: only three of the twelve songs were penned by Dobson, and although some of her choices of outside composers to cover were astute (Ralph McTell, Jackson Frank), she didn't have enough personality to carry the tunes as an interpretive artist. She sounds best when the arrangements are simplest, which is rare on this record; for instance, her version of "A Taste of Honey" (yes, the same pop tune the Beatles once covered) starts off well as a kind of folk arrangement, and then gets dampened by horns. The best track is the original "You Don't Know," a melancholy breakup song, though even this isn't so hot or appropriately arranged.

© Richie Unterberger /TiVo