On the cover of her new CD, Laura Roppe is pictured standing in the middle of a dirt road in a little black getup, and heels posing rather defiantly. Yes, it’s another bid on the indie circuit for some soundalike Hollywood Nashville pop. And it’s every bit as mediocre as you might imagine. Roppe’s main problem is that she doesn’t have the voice to carry strong pop country tunes. It sounds like she’s really forcing it on the title track, almost missing her marks in a number of places. It gets a little worse on “Mama Needs a Girls Night Out” where her voice starts sounding a bit more Kermit the Frog and less country diva. She tries to bring the sass to “Ooh La La,” and sounds like she’s painting by numbers than putting anything honest into her performance. And by the time “Crazy about You and Me” arrives, you wish she’d just sing it straight without the affected twang in her throat. This may have been a nice vanity project for Roppe, but for the general listener, there’s far better stuff out there to be heard. (self-released)
