pitfaltina's Full Review: On My Way Here by Clay Aiken
I'm a Clay Aiken fangirl from way back, but was thoroughly disgusted by his last lame effort and wasn't at all sure I'd fork over the money for his latest album, On My Way Here. A couple of listens on the 'net convinced me to shell out some bucks and give it a try. Was it worth it? Read on...
Clay Aiken is now firmly lodged in Ballad Hell with this new batch of songs, his first album of all original material since 2003's Measure Of A Man. Clay has once again saddled himself with an album full of Adult Contemporary sleepers. For once, though, he spices things up with some up-tempo numbers that might make a non-fan listen with about half an ear.
We begin with, guess what, a ballad! Shocker, that. "On My Way Here", the first track (and also the first single on the radio, not that you'll ever hear it), is a slow tempo, string-laden, schmaltzy pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps inspirational tune that nothing is going to save. The lyrics touch on all the standard emotional chords (surviving the parents' divorce, overcoming obstacles, believing in oneself, etc.) that we have come to expect from a Clay Aiken non-love ballad. The tune itself is very soaring and basic, and is dragged down by the most canned-sounding sweeping strings, harps, and vaguely Spanish-sounding guitar. In a phrase? Muzak with lyrics. Grade: D
Track two, "Ashes" picks up the tempo but not the intelligence quotient. Cliche-laden lyrics ("what doesn't kill me makes me stronger"; "rise up from the ashes") drag down what would otherwise be a pleasant if unremarkable song. The synthesized strings don't help much, either. There is some wanna-be rock sounding guitar and some cool techno effects, but not enough to make this song remotely innovative. Clay can do uptempo, I've heard him do it, but once again he is suffering from the weakness of his material. Grade: C
"Everything I Don't Need" finally kick starts what has been a snooze thus far, and what a wake up call! This track has a rock organ, funky guitar, rockin' drums! I had to stop the CD and pull it out of the player and check to make sure I was still playing a Clay Aiken album. Clay invests this tune with some serious emotion, growling and snarling and barking. Woo hoo! Angry Clay! More like this, please. Thematically and lyrically, it's the same old song, but at least this one packs a punch. Grade: A
"Something About Us" slows the tempo way the heck down, but it works this time. This tune gently smolders like a good 40's standard, with some jazz chord changes. The strings aren't quite as intrusive in this song as the others, and the lyrics (about love, but of course), while cheesy, work well here. This is a good song about 60 years too late. Grade: B
Track five, "Falling", picks the tempo back up, but unfortunately not the emotional content. This track features many of the same tweaks as "Ashes" (heavy guitars, techno effects) with about the same result. A casual listener might be forgiven for not realizing that "Ashes" and "Falling" are, in fact, two different songs. (The same can be said about much of the rest of the album, funnily enough!) Again, we explore the theme of Clay reaching out for support as his life gets messed up. Are we sure that this IS a different song? Grade: C
"Where I Draw The Line" has some of the most cringe-worthy lyrics I've ever heard ("I melt every time we kiss"; "around my heart is where I draw the line") and is, once again, about Clay overcoming heartache. If any normal person had been hurt this much in love, they'd be in the Guinness Book of World Records. The melody is pretty standard Adult Contemporary fodder, with big glory notes, a soaring chorus, and a final chorus that rises a half-step in tone for more dramatic impact. Honestly, if this song were a glove? It would be made of latex and dropped in a hazardous waste bin at the doctor's office after being used for a proctology exam. C'mon, Clay, give me some CASHMERE gloves! Grade: C
The next song, "The Real Me", has all the poignancy of a really expensive Hallmark card. You know the kind I mean, the one in the top slot of the greeting card rack with the embossed lettering and the gold leaf that you have to pay a sawbuck for. The kind you buy for the wife when you forgot Valentine's Day last year and you have to be extra mushy this year. That card. As sappy as this song is, Clay invests it with some real emotion, describing how empty his life has become since he became a household name. The melody is pretty without being particularly memorable. Grade: B-
"Weight Of The World" picks the tempo up again, and wonder of wonders, it's not a love song! Or an inspirational song! But it does have terrible lyrics ("struck by lightning, it's so frightening" should be followed by the sound of helpless retching) and a mildly catchy melody. The backing track sounds like an 80's drum machine programmed to the U2 setting, yet I can't help but like the "down, down, down" part. Could it be there is something resembling a hook here? This one actually got stuck in my head for an hour. Grade: B
"As Long As We're Here" slows the tempo again and somehow manages to straddle the love and inspirational themes simultaneously. It's lovespirational! The melody is very bland and the instrumentation oddly features an Irish sounding fiddle. Why? Who knows. Things get vaguely exciting toward the end of the track when the chorus joins in, but not exciting enough for me to recommend this track. Grade: C
Aaaaaand we slow down even more for "Sacrificial Love". The heavy-handed Muzak strings are back, but the chorus is so simple and beautiful that I'm almost able to ignore them. Lyrically, we're back at square one (the LOVE square) with Clay getting his widdle heart bwoken again. *Sigh* Why does this man make it so hard to be a fan of his music? And toward the end, the strings get very intrusive, evoking memories of Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand singing "You Don't Bring Me Flowers", which is a musical era I never had any intention of revisiting, as it was bad enough the first time around. Bleah. Grade: B-/C
"Grace Of God" is a Contemporary Christian song, let's call a spade a spade. The lyrics speak of how there are so many underprivileged people in the world and how we should count our blessings every day. The word "folks" is featured in the first verse. I hate that word. That word should be banned from the English language. The only people I know in real life who use that word are trying to sell me something I neither want nor need. Anyway, the instrumentation, lyrics, and melody all reek of Up With People-ness and I only needed to play this track twice to realize I would never play it again. Grade: D-
The next track, "Lover All Alone", was featured as an iTunes bonus on Clay's last album. I already covered that song thoroughly on my review of A Thousand Different Ways, which you can read by clicking the link in the first paragraph of this review, so I won't rehash everything again. It was the best tune from that album, and I am sad to say that it's still the best track on this album. Why am I sad? It's a fantastic song with thoughtful lyrics and a gorgeous melody that is sung with wistfulness and regret. I'm sad because Clay had a year and a half to come up with new material and couldn't top this song, that's why. I'm also sad that I had to pay an extra $10 for this track back then when it came free on this album. Grrr. Hate. Song. Exclusivity. Grade: A++
And of course, now that I wrote how I hate song exclusives, we get to the first of the exclusives for THIS album. If you buy this CD at Walmart, you get an exclusive track called "Forget I Ever Knew You". At least the CD is cheap at Walmart so you don't have to shell out a bunch of money for one track. (At least not THIS track, and more on that next paragraph!) This song is a midtempo woe-is-me-in-love ballad, but I'm sure you guessed that solely from the title. This song is remarkable in its unremarkable-ness. That made more sense in my head, but I've already typed it and I'm too lazy to go back and delete it. The lyrics are so typical that they're nearly paraphrased from the A/C Ballad Songwriter's Handbook. (I totally made that book up, by the way.) If you're going to buy this CD at Walmart anyway, good for you, you got this song for free. If you're going to buy the CD somewhere else, you aren't missing anything of consequence. Grade: C
Another exclusive song is only available on iTunes. "It's In Everyone Of Us" veers back to Contemporary Christian territory lyrically and melodically, with a dash of gospel piano and a heaping tablespoon of gospel choir. I'm going to make a leap here and surmise that Clay really wanted to be a CC artist. Why he didn't is anybody's guess. The song is pretty standard fare and not worth the extra $10 you have to pay. I valiantly made that $10 sacrifice so you wouldn't have to.
Finally, if you buy the album from QVC, the home shopping channel, you get an entire disc of exclusive material. Now now, don't get all excited. Most of the stuff isn't exclusive at all. Three of the songs on the exclusive disc ("I Will Carry You", "Invisible", and "Measure Of A Man") were available on Clay's first album, Measure Of A Man. The "exclusive" video for "This Is The Night" is the exact same video that has been floating around on the 'net for four years. The last track, "When I Need You", is the only real exclusive here. Do you want to pay $20 for one song? I didn't think so. If you really want to hear Clay sing that song, find footage of 2004's Independent Tour, where he sang the song. This recording is actually left over from the Measure Of A Man recording sessions, anyway, so it's very old news.
I paid $9.72 for this album, plus $9.99 for the exclusive iTunes song. I would have done much better to listen to the live stream of the album a dozen more times and then cherry-picked the three songs I like (and didn't already have) from iTunes. This is an album for the fans, as Clay isn't going to win over any new ones. If Clay keeps recording albums in this vein, that circle of fans is going to shrink ever smaller. So, was this worth the money? That would be a big NO. Overall, this album gets a grade of C-. Clay's Achilles heel once again proves to be his material. He needs to start finding some non-love, non-inspirational songs and sing the bejeezus out of them, or he's losing what was once a die-hard fan.
Download these: Lover All Alone, Everything I Don't Need, Something About Us, Weight Of The World
American Idol runner up turned Broadway star (see his current run in the Tony Award winning Spamalot), Clay Aiken returns with his first album of enti...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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