It gets off to great start with Season 4 champ Carrie Underwood singing her signature song "Independence Day", written by fellow country gal Gretchen Peters. This is a country song that could be sung by the likes of Martina McBride and Faith Hill, and should do really well as a single.

Other notable tracks are:

"I Don't Want To Be", by runner-up Bo Bice of the long silky locks, written by the talented "Chariot" man Gavin DeGraw. A little Matchbox 20 influence is apparent on this track.

"You Don't Have to Say You Love Me", by Nadia Turner. Well, this song stopped me in my tracks. What a voice! What a song! A definite double and triple play song.

"Total Eclipse of the Heart", by Jessica Sierra. A great rendition of my favorite Bonnie Tyler song. Slightly less raspy, but nobody can really scrape them out like Bonnie.

"Everytime You Go Away", by Anthony Fedorov. He may look more like a chess player than a singer, but he did a great job of this Daryl Hall song.

The ensemble number "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" is passable, but not outstanding.

There are a lot of good singers in Season 4, and some of them have better songs than the ones included on this album. What does a girl have to do for a little "Bohemian Rhapsody"? I would also love to hear more from Vonzell Solomon and Constantine Maroulis.

An above average album representative of an intriguing season.

Amanda Richards

Good Singing - Bad Choices
Review date: 2005-05-28 Rating: 6 out of 10

There are some amazing performances on here - mostly coming from Carrie Underwood, Bo Bice, Vonzell Solomon, Jessica Sierra and Anthony Federov. But finalists like Anwar Robinson and Constantine Maroulis really aren't shown off in this album; they both chose songs which the viewers forgot about. I would have preferred Anwar to sing September and Constantine to have sung Bohemian Rhapsody. A truly outstanding performance from the winner of American Idol 2005, Carrie Underwood. So, once again, very good quality; but poor selections, for once, the producers like Simon, got it wrong!

Product Details/Specifications