It seems to be a member of Randy Jackson's Music Club all you need is a high dose of slick, glossy production and maybe a serving of extra cheese. Really, all that is congealing these twelve tracks, which traverse the commercial constraints of hip-hop, r&b, pop and rock genres, is sonic synthetic-ness.Every track is polished to a fault, lacking in any natural display of emotion or personality. But that probably shouldn't come as a surprise. The entire compilation plays like one big obvious cash-in to the American Idol juggernaut.
While the Club is cluttered with R&B ingenues (Joss Stone, Angie Stone and Anthony Hamilton), established rappers (Ghostface Killah) and past idol alums (Katharine McPhee and Elliott Yamin) it is the track by 1980s hack/ erratic Idol co-judge Paula Abdul that is probably most noteworthy. "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow" her self-professed comeback attempt at musical relevancy is so laughably awful. The plasticity of the music and roboticness of her heavily pro-tooled vocals pleadingly come across as unintentionally hilarious. Believe me there is more enjoyment to be had watching her try to formulate a coherent sentence on national television than listening to anything she is capable of creating in the studio.
As a whole it's a pretty superfluous compilation. There is nothing wholly original or inventive to be found. At it's best Randy Jackson's Music Club is like most top-40 music of its nature, innocuous, unadventurous and bland. And at it's worst it features Paula Abdul.
Randy Jackson's Music Club
Volume 1
1. Dance Like There's No Tomorrow --Paula Abdul
2. Just Walk On By--Joss Stone
3. What Am I So Afraid Of -- Trisha Covington, Keke Wyatt & Kiley Dean
4. Like A --Crunk Squad ft. Ghostface Killah
5. Who's Gonna Love You Now --Kelli Love
6. Wang Dang Doodle--Sam Moore, Keb' Mo & Angie Stone
7. Something to Believe In--Van Hunt, Jon McLaughlin & Jason Mraz
8. Home--John Rich & Anthony Hamilton
9. My R&B--Barbi Esco
10. Real Love--Katharine McPhee & Elliott Yamin
11. Willing to Try--Richie Sambora, Travis Tritt & Lucy Woodward
12. I Understand--Kim Burrell, Rance Allen, Bebe Winans, Mariah Carey & Hezekiah Walker's Love Fellowship Tabernacle Church Choir
