Apollo & Julianne

I'll admit it: for one whole season I was a closet DWTS fan. For those of you not sucked in to reality tv, that means "Dancing with the Stars." The truth is, I am not so much a DWTS fan as an Apollo and Julianne fan. They are both so young, so cute, so funny, and excellent dancers, the pair of them! I LOVE APOLLO & JULIANNE! And, of course, they won! (No, I didn't spoil that for you. That is two seasons old; if you didn't already know then you weren't ever going to find out.)

Another truth for me to admit: I have been following Julianne's career, albeit sporadically, ever since. I can't help it!! She's young, she's from Utah, she's LDS, and she is at every major sporting event I attend; she is my "almost friend." So, I heard through the grapevine that Julianne Hough was putting out a country album. She is even going on tour with Brad Paisley! I like country music, so in support of the girl I could have been friends with, I rushed out and bought the album the week it was released.

I am terribly disappointed. I kind of feel like it was a waste of $11.99 + tax. She sings well enough; in fact, she has a surprisingly good voice. Her songs lack personality. The lyrics are memorable (often annoyingly so), but contrived. They have little to no real meaning, and only one song seems to have any ties to Julianne's real life experience. Also, it is quite preachy. The first few songs are typical young love, cutesy garbage that anyone under 16 will love. Then the last two-thirds of the CD are her singing to other people about their problems. She sings about a young, alcoholic mother and basically says she's done trying to do all the work, so "help me help you." There is another song about a friend who always hooks up with the wrong guy regardless of the advice she tries to give and tells her she needs to learn her own lesson. There are several other similar examples... It feels like she is saying "I'm young and beautiful with a perfect life and I can't be bothered with trying to help you all through your normal problems."

Maybe I'm just a whiner. I was concerned that I would blindly love this album until someone pointed out its flaws, but the reality is I will gladly put in any other album in my CD collection before listening to this again.