True Believer

This folk-rock album by L.A. based singer-songwriter Malea McGuinness is 14 tracks of Mom music. Gentle and unchallenging, the album doesn't go beyond mid-tempo and suffers because of it. Although McGuinness is a decent singer, this album gives the impression that she may be resting on a tried-and-true formula for singer songwriters, as opposed to venturing out into the unknown and trying something original.

Vaguely reminiscent of Sheryl Crow at her most domesticated, and lacking all the redeeming qualities of Sheryl Crow, the albums lyrics are somewhat trite. One song that stands out as being particularly indicative of poetic clich?s is (ironically) the single "Deeper," which opens the album. Although not a particularly terrible first effort, nothing jumps out at you, which may actually be a low-key vibe that McGuinness was striving for, but it misses the mark and falls into the pit of nothing special.