I'm sure by now everyone in the country has heard of Kelly either in a good way or in a bad way - depends on who you talked to I guess. I think that everyone also knows now that Kelly won "American Idol". I will say right now that no I did not vote for anyone at all during the show and never would have because I couldn't see myself really loving any of the artists after they were done with the show. Although I would love to know if the people that voted for Kelly will really go out and buy this CD Single and later her full length CD.

It also makes me wonder how many people will be buying tickets to the "American Idol Live" shows that are starting right now. I have heard that they have not sold out the Anaheim Pond yet (although I thought that was over-ambitious on their part anyway.

Well let's take a look at this single and I know that I will get a lot of comments from people wondering why I am not recommending this - but I am not insulting Kelly with this review and hopefully the songs that she is given for the full length CD will be a lot better than the ones that she was given for the CD Single.

The Cover

Now I will say something good about the cover, they did get a very cute fun picture of her for the cover, although I'm not sure this stays in the mood of the song but it is cute. I don't think during the show there were many times that you got to see her laugh so this is a good thing for her cover.

Now of course the first thing you will see is the "American Idol" logo on the top corner of the CD and I think that they should have at least made her name a little bigger because the logo is bigger and more prominent than her name. However, I also think this is good marketing because many people might not know her name (even though she won) and this will tell them exactly who she is right away. Hopefully this tag won't stick with her for her whole life though.

The CD Single

I think that honestly there songs were picked when no one knew who was going to win (although let's face it everyone had a good idea the last 3 weeks what would happen and I'm not sure there are many people out there really shocked by what happened). But these songs are pretty generic and could have been sung by any of the 10 finalists and they would have done a good job with them.

Kelly does a great job with the songs themselves and her voice is very good on them however the songs themselves are what I am not thrilled with at all and I would have liked to have seen better songs given to her.

I'm sure that most people have already heard these songs performed on the show or in highlights done after the show and after she was announced a winner so most people will be familiar with both songs before they buy the single itself.

Well let's take a look at the songs and see what happens but please remember that I am not insulting her voice or her talent although I do believe that these songs do not give her a good starting place. But because of how she was given a contract and that she did win "American Idol" these songs will still be heard on the radio and on MTV.

Before I start with the songs I do want to state that these are not the live versions that you heard done on the show and have been re-recorded for this CD Single. So they might not be the exact same that you heard on the show.

Before Your Love

Now these are both ballads and this starts out with a nice piano and trust me her voice does sound better on this recording than she did sound live. The song does sound a lot better without it being live but it is still a little weak for her and it's not the best song that they could have given her.

Her voice is very stunning and you can see from this single that she was a good choice to win and when you listen to this version you can see why no one else could do these songs now.

This is a ballad with what sounds like an orchestra in parts of the song but mostly done with pianos. The music is nice but what distracts me is that the lyrics are not as good and dynamic as they could be. But I will say on a good note that this song does sound better than it did on the show.

A Moment Like This

Now this song starts a lot different than what I remember it starting on the show, maybe I wasn't paying attention during the show (which could be possible) but it starts with an almost Spanish sounding guitar and Kelly singing. Her voice is very quiet through this song and actually again she sounds a lot better than the song.

In all honesty this song is better than "Before Your Love" but I still would have expected more from this single than what I am seeing here. Then again I will give them the credit that they did want to get this out so fast after the show ended so people would not forget.

Overall this song is a lot softer and much more of an uplifting ballad. In ways it is a love song but I can also see what someone had mentioned that this song also describes their feelings about the show, I'm not sure about that explanation though.

The song rises at the end and honesty sounds like a choir song at the end, not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing right now. But it does add a dramatic ending to the song.

After you hear these two songs, ask yourself if any of the other 10 finalists could have done them, that's what I did and after hearing the released versions of these songs it is hard to imagine anyone else singing them.

Conclusion

I know that on the final show she did get over 4 million votes (I have no clue how many of those were people calling multiple times) but I think it will be very interesting to see how many people (especially those that did vote multiple times) will be buying this CD Single.

This whole "American Idol" experience is not a new situation for those that remember there was the show "Popstars" as well a few years ago. Only difference was that viewers did not vote and they created two groups - remember the show was on for two seasons. I'm not sure how many people remember but the first show was all girls and the second they created a group with boys and girls - I couldn't even tell you the second groups name. I'm not sure what will happen with Kelly now that the show is over and hopefully the same will not repeat for her. When the second season of "Popstars" started everyone forgot about the first group.

Like I said before I hope that the songs that Kelly is given for her full length CD are much better than these. I have heard the songs that the Australian winners (Danielle - who came in second and Scott Cain - who won) have done and they have both released two singles and both for them have been in the top 40 in Australia. Their songs are both very upbeat dance songs and have done very well. So hopefully we will see things like that on her CD as well.

As a friend says about that "time will tell."

For those that love Kelly's voice I'm sure you will go out and buy this to show your support for her but for those that don't know that much about her and are just curious these songs might not give you the best impression of her and I do recommend waiting a month for the full length CD and hope that something on there is much better than these two songs.



Recommended: No

Great Music to Play While: Going to Sleep