Trent Harmon: There’s a Girl
Details
Genre: CountryPros:
Pop-country of this caliber is safe territory for AI winnerCons:
The bore of the song title, a lackluster vocal performance and not-exactly ringing lyrics sucks the air out of the roomFinal Idol winner loses momentum on first commercial career single
Final Idol winner loses momentum on first commercial career single
A farce, some may call him. The crowned winner of American Idol’s last season performed a heavy list of R&B crooner favorites, or Top 40 pop songs on balladic arrangements, and pulled it off using Justin Timberlake urban pop. On his first commercial outing since winning Idol, Trent Harmon tunes up to a slice of Tennessee crossover country. The Amory, Mississippi native has been telling the media that this is the kind of stuff he wanted to do on the show. He sounds good at it, even if the song’s title seriously lacks imagination. He’s telling a story of traveling a good long-distance in search of good luck on a hot babe (“There’s a girl somewhere with eyes so blue/You know a call just won’t do, so here I am on Highway 45”). But even if the song sounds a bit MOR and cautious, it’s a good long way from the lounge soul of “Falling,” his coronation song released during the finale of Idol. He doesn’t go for the hard belting that made him a star, either. Also, the phrasing of “’Cause there’s a girl” even comes with an awkward lisp. If Harmon did a whole album of this type of saline country-pop, he’ll get some instant notice, but this isn’t anything smoldering or ultra-magnetic to put him in today’s top brass. Stronger choruses, more creative titles and an occasional section where he shows off – that’s what he really needs. So far, he hasn’t been giving that type of original song.
