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Music review: Clay Aiken's 'On My Way Here'

Glenn Gamboa | DROPS

May 6, 2008

Clay Aiken has always seemed like the most bewildered of the " American Idol" graduates -- his insta-fame cut with a bit of what-just-happened? caution, his music a hit-or-miss split between what he wants and what he's supposed to want.

Five years later, on his second full album of originals, "On My Way Here" (RCA/19), Aiken is starting to figure it out.

He is at his best when he wraps his big voice around big ballads, usually ones with big messages attached. He maximizes the drama on "As Long as We're Here" to poignant effect, with booming phrases that would make Celine Dion proud, followed by vulnerable questioning that emo leading men would secretly admire. He undersells "Something About Us" like it was a classic Johnny Mathis ballad and fills "The Real Me" with a quavering uncertainty that makes it work.

Aiken turns the title track, written by the omnipresent Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, into one of those ballads that could have been written anytime in the past 30 years or, probably, in the next 30. But when he tries his hand at songs that sound timelier -- the poppy "Falling," a clone of his hit "Invisible," or the Pink-ish "Ashes" -- he starts to lose it.

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As much as his record company would want him to be, Aiken isn't a crossover pop star. He's a male Celine Dion, a nerdier Michael Bublé, a new-millennium Barry Manilow, and there's nothing wrong with that. The sooner he embraces that, the better his albums will sound. With "On the Way Here," he's not quite there.

SHADOW "AGE." The Last Shadow Puppets - the side project from Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner and Miles Kane, singer from the British, new-millennium version of the Rascals -- move at two speeds on their debut, "The Age of the Understatement" (Domino). There's the spaghetti-Western gallop, with touches of Ennio Morricone drama stretched over Britpop guitars, and there's the Bond movie march, a seeming soundtrack for tuxedoed spies everywhere to enter a room with equal parts swagger and wariness. Luckily, they handle both scenarios masterfully.

Turner's vocals aren't really any more emotive than they are with the Arctic Monkeys, but when they're dropped into all these unusual surroundings, they just seem that way. On the title track, already a chart-topper in England, the Last Shadow Puppets sound as if they're scoring a '60s Western. On the lush "Meeting Place," it sounds as if Turner's joined the Style Council, with the help of the 22-piece London Metropolitan Orchestra.

"The Age of the Understatement" may be a bit weird, but it's certainly worth a visit. ("The Age of the Understatement," in stores today; Grade: B.)

ALSO IN STORES. Neil Diamond's "Home Before Dark" (American); Gavin DeGraw's "Gavin DeGraw" (J); Elvis Costello and the Imposters' "Momofuku" (Lost Highway); German sensation Tokio Hotel's "Scream" (CherryTree); Craig David's "Trust Me" (Warner Bros.); Firewater's "The Golden Hour" (Bloodshot); Tim Fite's "Fair Ain't Fair" (Anti-); and Toby Keith's "35 Biggest Hits" (Show Dog Nashville).

SONG OF THE WEEK. Fergie's new single "Labels or Love" (New Line) is such a train wreck that it's hard to believe anyone seriously thought this was a good idea. It may be possible to forgive the reckless use of the "Sex and the City" theme as a hip-hop beat or the cheesy, faux-'80s synth lines, or ridiculous lines such as "No emotional baggage, just big bags filled with Dior" and "Manolo and Louis is all I'm thinking of" - but all of them together is a froufrou explosion of tacky. It's too bad, since the rest of the "Sex and the City" soundtrack is packed with way better songs from Jennifer Hudson, India.Arie and Al Green.

Contact Glenn Gamboa at 631-843-3434.

ON MY WAY HERE. Clay Aiken starts a new, less "Idol"-ish journey. In stores today. Grade: B-.