Beyonce, Branch CDs disappoint

By Howard Cohen
Knight Ridder News Service

"Dangerously in Love," Beyonce (Columbia)

Beyonce Knowles, leader of Destiny's Child, single-handedly does her part to combat illegal music downloading on her first solo CD.

Get this one via the Net without its packaging and you miss out on a whole series of pinup-photos the lovely Beyonce scatters about her lavish CD booklet.

Those alone are almost worth the price of admission. Beyonce's sub-par singing, however, will cool most of the remaining passion.

Like Janet Jackson before her, Beyonce is the thin-voiced product of her producers. Pro-Tooled to within an inch of her scantily clad bod, Beyonce barely gets by with studio trickery, machines, a lot of vocal layering and a sense of rhythm that makes some of her melodically anemic, mechanical tunes sound good when cranked on the stereo.

Though the seductive slice of classic soul balladry "Speechless" is by far the best track on the CD, "Dangerously in Love" could use a few more up-tempo numbers, as the disc bogs down in too many plush, somnolent ballads.

Last summer, Beyonce's first solo single, the funky "Work It Out" from the "Austin Powers in Goldmember" movie she had a co-starring role in, surprisingly stiffed on the charts but was catchier than any candidates on this set. The new CD's first single, "Crazy in Love," featuring the obligatory guest rapper (and her paramour) Jay-Z, isn't special in a songwriting sense, but it rides its Chi-Lites horn sample well and gets the CD off to a frisky start. She maintains the pace on the snaky "Hip Hop Star" (with Big Boi of OutKast helping out).

Lyrically, Beyonce evolves beyond Destiny's Child's now overly familiar "independent women" anthems for some personal reflection. Examples include an untitled ode to her father/manager; or "Yes," a song about respecting a woman's right to say "No," even if she has given in before.

Given the marketing muscle money behind Beyonce at this point, it's a no-brainer to predict hearty sales for this CD, but it's also easy to imagine how any number of vocalists could have done just as well with this formulaic, none-too-challenging material.

"Hotel Paper," Michelle Branch (Maverick)

Michelle Branch, whose latest disc is titled "Hotel Paper," has yet to mature and find a distinctive voice as a songwriter. Gannett News Service

Britney isn't the bellwether of pop, and there's writing songs and then there's Stevie Wonder. Branch is, as of yet, not much of a songwriter. She lacks vision.

The most distinctive songs on "Hotel Paper," Branch's second CD, are the ones that sound like someone else. "Love Me Like That," her duet with the ubiquitous Sheryl Crow, is Fleetwood Mac lite. The first single — "Are You Happy Now?" — is Male-bashing 101 done by a diluted Alanis Morissette. Lyrically, Branch obsesses over the usual relationship problems and how life on the road isn't peachy keen. The production by John Shanks (Stevie Nicks, Melissa Etheridge) is generically up-to-date.