Haley Reinhart - Listen Up! (2012)

Tracklist

01. Oh My!
02. Free
03. Liar
04. Wasted Tears
05. Undone
06. Now That You're Here
07. Wonderland
08. Keep Coming Back
09. Hit The Ground Runnin'
10. Walking On Heaven

The debut album from 2011 American Idol finalist Haley Reinhart, 2012's Listen Up! features the singer framed in slick, retro-influenced pop and R&B productions. Working with a handful of pop songwriting and production wizards including Busbee (Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry), Mike Elizondo (Nelly Furtado, Natasha Bedingfield), Rob Kleiner, MoZella, and others, Reinhart has delivered a solid set of catchy, dance-oriented cuts that maximize her sexy, playful persona and come off a lot hipper than you'd expect from a major label AmIdol release. Vocally, Reinhart has a cherubically gutsy, deeply resonant vocal sound perfectly suited for these boomy, '60s pop-influenced productions. In that sense, tracks like the punchy leadoff cut "Oh My!," the sultry lil'-diva single "Free," and the equally as swaggering and funky "Liar" are catchy, post-Amy Winehouse dance-soul productions that mix scratchy vinyl-sounding beats, blurty horn sections, driving piano lines, and some sassy backing vocal parts. Elsewhere, we get the pumping Motown-esque "Wasted Tears," the similarly engaging disco anthem "Now That You're Here," and the swoony girl group meets soft rock number "Wonderland." Definitely an ear-grabber, Listen Up! ultimately posits Reinhart as a kind of old-school pinup, a mini-Mariah Carey if she'd grown up listening to a mix of Dusty Springfield, Lisa Stansfield, and En Vogue.

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