Burn

Jo Dee (great country music name, y’all?) has won awards, achieved double-platinum status and, according to the press release, “believes in the life-changing power of dreams”. Sadly, she obviously doesn’t believe in the life-changing power of originality.

Burn, her third album, is contemporary country music, with a loud production and a bunch of ordinary songs overflowing with country music clichés delivered with the panache of a small-town pizza service.

The opener ‘Downtime’ marries a predictable country feel to a touch of Joshua Tree-era U2. Yes, it’s that up-to-date. In the middle of it Jo Dee truthfully en-Twains “I’ve been down this road a time or two, it’s nothing new”. I know how she feels.

There are very few moments of relief along the way, although the electric twelve-string intro on ‘These Are The Days’ woke me up until it hastily disappeared into the undergrowth of Tim McGraw’s production. The keyboard intro on ‘Angelene’ suffered a nigh-on similar fate.

Linda Ronstadt and others did all this much better back in the early seventies. Now it’s become tediously hackneyed in the hands of Shania Twain and a thousand country bimboids.

Oh, by the way, there’s also an extra track for Irish and UK fans. Serves you all right.