Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 03/25/2008
Sweetness rules on
Colbie Caillat's debut,
Coco, which is perhaps only appropriate for an album bearing that name, but the record doesn't play like a toasty mug of chocolate on a winter's day, it's a sugary lemonade on a breezy summer afternoon. It's light and comforting, a familiar blend of sunny
pop and
singer/songwriter tropes that flirt with cliché but never sound hackneyed -- a lighter, brighter spin on
Norah Jones that sounds like an ideal soundtrack to a few hours in a cozy coffeehouse or a montage on
Grey's Anatomy, whatever comes first. If that gives the impression that
Caillat is a little calculated -- and if her music-biz heritage (her dad co-produced
Fleetwood Mac's
Rumours and
Tusk) gives the sense that she may have had a silver spoon, and if her celebrated
MySpace popularity is also initially suspect -- then as an album
Coco shows no crassness or coldness: it flows easily and, yes, sweetly, filled with gently ingratiating melodies and delivered with warmth and a casual charisma that proves to be quite endearing by the end of the record.
Caillat doesn't attempt anything approaching a major statement -- the album is filled with songs about love and life -- but that's her appeal: she sings about simple, everyday things in an unassuming manner, letting her melodies and girl-next-door charm carry the day, and they do so winningly on this nicely mellow debut. [
Universal Japan's 2008 edition included bonus tracks.]
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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