My Amazon Reviews: Gavin DeGraw "Make A Move"

Gavin Makes His Big Pop Move
3 Out Of 5 Stars

After the top ten success of "Sweeter," touring with Train and Maroon 5, you could hardly blame Gavin DeGraw for wanting his albums to achieve that headliner level of success on his own. "Make a Move" is just that kind of album, tasting of the generic pop Maroon 5 turns out on a regular basis, but minus the charisma of an Adam Levine, and pumped up production-wise until it falls victim to the loudness wars. Even with a decent stereo system, "Best I Ever Had" splats its way through its over-compression. If that's not enough, the songs here are all co-helmed by hired guns like Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, which robs the songs of personality but makes them sound exquisitely tailored for pop radio, like the way "Heartbreak" so effortlessly clones Maroon 5.

That's a darn shame, as the best moments of "Sweeter" and earlier albums showed a promising keyboardist writing and performing some nicely personal work and showing some semblance of personality, ala Five For Fighting's John Ondrasik. As over-done as "Best I Ever Had" is, it's still a darn fine poptune. Same for the mellower "Everything Will Change," co-written with Boys Like Girls' Martin Johnson (who made their pop move on their last album, "Crazy World"), but it still feels like the most personal song on "Make a Move." In total, there aren't any real bad songs here, only indistinguishable ones. That isn't always a hindrance, so if the album wasn't so darn over-produced, I might have bumped it to a fourth star. Between the over-cooked sound and what sounds like a general removal of Gavin's personality, "Make a Move" comes off as generic. He's done better.

     

My Amazon Reviews: Gavin DeGraw "Sweeter"

Sweetness Follows
3 Out Of 5 Stars

Gavin DeGraw makes it to his fourth album. pretty much covering the same turf as his first three. He's still milking the same blue-eyed soul turf that has made stars out of Jason Mraz currently and Daryl Hall decades before. What differentiates "Sweeter" from his other CD's is that he decided to allow co-writers on-board for the first time. On of them, Ryan Tedder, has been all but certified as the current Midas Touch-man, ala Mick Ronson. Tedder is also the producer of those two songs, emphasizing the piano and making the title song sound tougher than it really is. Andrew Frampton also produces/cowrites a pair, "Run Every Time" and the closer, "Spell It Out."

What strikes me as most interesting is that, on his own, DeGraw comes off as a piano-man worshiping at the alter of Billy Joel and Elton John (especially on "You Know Where I'm At"). Not a bad well to draw from, and when it turns up songs like "Radiation" or "Soldier," worth the effort. On the more annoying and overworked "Candy," not so much. What I'd love to hear more of, though, is the solo DeDraw that sits behind his piano and lets loose with "Spell It Out," which does away with overproduction and just lets the man sing and play. My guess is DeGraw is too slick a salesman to want to be that exposed too often, but it's the highlight of an otherwise light pop album.