Kristin Chenoweth- Some Lessons Learned

Kristin Chenoweth is one of those people that does everything. She’s won a Tony for her role in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and an Emmy for her work on the ABC comedy Pushing Daisies. She even has a master’s degree in opera performance, so you know she’s the real deal. So with her fourth album, and first foray into country, she has set the bar pretty high for herself. And it’s unfortunate, since it’s a bar Some Lessons Learned can’t quite vault over.

The album opens with “I Was Here,” which combines world-peace wishes and a desire to be remembered in a way that’s basically a beauty pageant speech set to Nashville twang. The song boasts some especially cringe-inducing lines, such as, “if you think I’m all talk/ you’re in for a shock,” and features a chorus that claims the desire to “do something that matters, say something different.” It is a bit of a bold goal for an album on which there isn’t anything that is actually different enough or emotionally resonant enough to be remembered past the first listen.

Some Lessons Learned is the brand of unaffecting country pop that produces dozens of artists, each completely indistinguishable from one another. It seems that the problem with the record isn’t Chenoweth- who has an absolutely incredible voice- but rather the pitfall of using the same producers and songwriters that write the majority of country radio hits. Songs like “Change” and “What if we Never” have choruses that are instantly recognizable as something you’ve heard before, but are so widespread in their use it’s impossible to pick out why they’re so familiar.

And that’s truly the problem with this album- it feels too produced and sterile. While that may be a pretty ridiculous complaint for a genre founded on clean production and perfect performances, it’s a fair statement for an album that isn’t really unique in any way. Chenoweth sings about the same things in the same exact way as the majority of her contemporaries, and it’s a bit of a bummer to see. Here is one of the most phenomenal vocalists working today, singing a song you’ve heard a hundred times.

While the album is just slightly dull, it isn’t without its bright spots. “I Want Somebody (Bitch About)” is rightly the album’s first single, as it is catchy and fairly humorous. The other bright spots on the album, such as “What Would Dolly Do” and “I Didn’t” are chuckle-worthy in their premise and lyrical content. These are the sort of fun country pop songs your aunt says “you just have to hear” at Thanksgiving, but here you’re doing more than agreeing to be nice- they actually have some pretty clever moments.

The album really shines when it is being light-hearted and fun, a mood that is dragged down by the album’s alternating of up-beat songs and ballads. Just as the album is building up steam with a couple clever tracks in a row, another dreary ballad comes along to kill the mood. It is disappointing seeing a talent like Chenoweth put out such a dull record- like a concert cellist deciding to go for a business degree- but hey, nobody’s perfect, no matter how many awards are above their fireplace.