The album cover of Emmy Rossum’s debut album makes her look like a Celine Dion clone. A portrait of Rossum graces the front cover as she stares at you with adoring, mysterious eyes. Typically this is not a good sign for a musician. Rossum could easily be a model and most models make horrible musicians. Thankfully her music is far less predictable and, surprisingly, quite good.
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Paul Stanley
|  Entertainment
 Art
“Inside Out”
(Geffen)
Released October 23, 2007
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Rossum has had a long career performing with the Metropolitan Opera at just seven years old and as Christine in the film version of Phantom of the Opera. With credentials like that there is no doubt that she can sing. Whether or not she can survive the mainstream music business is another matter completely.
It takes nearly three tracks for Rossum to get really comfortable with herself on the album. Rossum’s voice is almost angelic and in the opening track “Slow Me Down” she manages to incorporate more than 150 different vocal parts and harmonies, all of which are sung by Rossum. On a high quality sound system the song must sound extremely surreal.
Numerous times throughout the album it felt as if Rossum might branch off into a more electronic genre. She floats on the verge of being almost too pop for her own good. It is as if she really is not sure where she belongs musically. Many of her songs sound alike and after awhile become a little redundant.
This is Rossum’s debut album and it took guts for someone trained in the opera to put themselves in the pop music arena. Many people will not like this album; that much is certain. This album is sure to be classified in the same section as Yanni and Kenny G.
One of the big problems may lie in the fact that Rossum seems to do a lot of her own writing. To be perfectly blunt the lyrics are horrible. She seems to be stuck in a Broadway state of mind where vocals have to be projected over the top rather then from the heart.
This album lacks true emotion. For those that like musical theatre this album will be much more appealing to you. But Rossum has decided to market herself as a pop musician and different rules apply. The title of the album is “Inside Out” but this feels as if we only glimpse the surface of who Rossum is.
The most obvious example of this is on the final track “Anymore”. One can almost picture her standing on stage singing the track as the climax to some unknown dramatic play. Rossum is a woman of talent, but I think she in the wrong field. If she tried a duet with another group she might find herself in much better hands. She would feel right at home with a band like The Coors, their classical Irish style fits well with Rossum’s.
In her defense not every good musician hits gold their first time out. Creating truly good music is a hard business and that is why so few survive, it is classical Darwinism at its best. Rossum has tremendous potential and with enough fine-tuning she could make a real name for herself. Rossum’s voice may be angelic but it will be awhile before she earns her musical wings.
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