Music Review: Julianne Hough - Julianne Hough - Page 3

While admittedly it’s far more rock-heavy than most country albums, traditional country enthusiasts will find much to admire as well as Hough, benefited by tremendous songwriters throughout the album, launches into subtly message laced story songs.  Additionally some are filled with humor and irony that weave a great yarn, proof that it's the thing that the country genre excels at better than any other musical genre. Such is the case in the possibly “Bobby McGee” inspired “Jimmy Ray McGee,” as Hough sings about refusing to give into her town’s horny first-string quarterback and instead attended prom “on another boy’s arm,” before revealing that she’d “Heard he [Jimmy] made someone else a mom/Disappeared from our hometown/Another daddy out running around.” And while it’s easy to want to cynically label a song like this a forced sermon, it’s a story that’s echoed throughout our country and I don’t think you would have to ask too many women if they’ve heard something similar or been in those shoes themselves. Likewise, Hough’s admirable girl power continues in full force in the humorous yet wise “Hello,” warning about girls who routinely allow themselves to be picked up by losers who are only differentiated from one another through “the face and the name.” Wishing that she was getting her message “through your fairytale head,” she warns her friend to “wake up and smell his cheap cologne,” although avoids the easy way out of only blaming the men with brilliant follow up lyrics of, “If you’re gonna keep fishing in a pool of shallow water/You can’t give the fish all the blame.” She further drives her point home in the familiar yet important “Love Yourself” wherein she consoles a friend after a breakup.  Indeed throughout her debut album and granted while she’s an entertainer first and foremost, I couldn’t help but wish I could force her albums instead of the usual over-sexed young women on MTV into the hands of impressionable teens and tweens who would all benefit from the clichéd yet vital lyrics of self-respect and the importance of friendship first. Although I’d be hard-pressed to name a dud in the lot, I found myself less enthused by the pretty but forgettable ballad “I’d Just Be With You,” the excellent but depressing story song “Help Me, Help You,” the by-the-numbers “About Life,” and her innocuous yet not quite as successful “My Hallelujah Song,” which contains a message best expressed in the other superiorly written tracks.

Article Author: Jen Johans

Jen is a life-long film buff frequently dubbed a "Walking Movie Encyclopedia.” While earning a degree in Film Studies, she joined AFI and IFP. A three-time national award-winning writer, Jen also runs her site Film Intuition as well as its Review …

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