ShareThis"DO YOU KNOW," Jessica Simpson (Epic/Columbia)Country music is just as fertile ground for attractive blond singers as pop, and after years of proving herself too unhip and too unsavvy for pop music, it makes sense for Jessica Simpson to swap out one stereotype-loving genre for another and go country.And country seems like a good fit for the Texas native: All she has to do is kick off her shoes, play up her twang, and she's golden.Except, she's not.There aren't as many mysteries to being a country star as there are to being a pop star -- for example, there's no need to fly around the world chasing down the trendiest producers -- but country singers are expected to be able to sing. And although Simpson can belt, she can't sing.On her country-fried "Do You Know," Simpson huffs and puffs and blows the mike down. Yet her bellowing is an emotional flatline, and she sounds the same whether she's singing about encouragement or seduction or devotion or regret. It's hard to relate to someone you can't read, and her relentless bluster is as irritating as it is confounding.To her credit, it seems as if all of Nashville's producers and musicians tried to make "Do You Know" work for the likable celebrity, and a few songs are modest successes despite Simpson's delivery, including the spiked-chorus opener "Come on Over" and the peppy anthem "Still Beautiful." Dolly Parton gave her the biggest boost of all, penning the title track and even singing along with Simpson on it -- giving the younger vocalist a tutorial on how to write music and show range.Simpson takes co-writing credit on most of the other tracks; however, there's nothing but cliches all around.Rating (five possible): 2"HEY MA," James (Decca/Mercury)The U.K. band James may have ingrained itself into the psyches of Brits with one release after another throughout the 1990s, but mention its name in the United States and the only likely response may be a flash of recognition from a few 30-somethings who recall the act's lone American hit, "Laid," from a decade and a half ago. So while the group's new comeback release, "Hey Ma," may have generated a stir in Great Britain, it's only an afterthought on this side of the Atlantic.James' breakthrough era had the misfortune of coinciding with a particularly good time in American rock (thanks to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc.), and the group wasn't grungy enough. Still, there's nothing particularly wrong with "Hey Ma's" resurrection of British anthem rock ... it merely isn't likely to trigger nostalgic thoughts here or inspire a new generation of fans.Provocative vocalist Tim Booth leads his band on a journey of trumped-up histrionics, and James' war themes are especially dramatic, with Booth singing of "The boys in body bags, comin' home in pieces" on the title track and "My god's bigger than your god" on a "72" that explores the way religious zealots fuel violent conflict.The sometimes-strident tone of the lyrics and the sometimes-overbearing, grandiose constructions are relieved by more sentimental moments on "Hey Ma." The relaxed, almost casual flow of the introspective "Waterfall," for instance, is a life-affirming highlight, and the release closes beautifully with the emotional "I Wanna Go Home."Rating: 3-1/2"UNDER SUMMER SUN," Matt Wertz (Universal Republic)If summer is the time of fluffy popcorn movies, it's also the time of fluffy pop music -- at least where Matt Wertz's "Under Summer Sun" is concerned. The singer-songwriter, a Missouri native based in Nashville, airs out an easygoing sound in simplistic, yet endearing, fashion on his major-label debut. Wertz worked his way through the indie ranks the past several years, and "Under Summer Sun" culls cuts from his previous releases and adds a few new tracks.His ditties are garden-variety songs about relationships and lightweight philosophy, inoffensive and mildly engaging from the start with the upbeat "Everything's Right" and carrying through the lonely soft rock of "5:19," the mellow romance of "Red Meets Blue" and the hook-centric, wistful "Carolina."Wertz has the Everyman voice to go with his Everyman perspective -- a little throaty and pleasant in a John Mayer kind of way.Rating: 3(E-mail Chuck Campbell of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at Campbell(at)knews.com.)
Jessica Simpson delivers artless punch
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