Ultimate High (Carly Hennessy)

I originally purchased this album as an investment. Carly Hennessy is a current contestant on American Idol, now using her married name of Carly Smithson. Her 2001 album Ultimate High failed to find any kind of success upon release, as documented in this interesting Wall Street Journal article.

When poking around online, I noticed a lot of people attempting to sell this album for a fair deal of money now that Hennessy is getting her Idol stardom. Months earlier, I'd seen a used copy of this album in a record store near me, so I decided to go over there and see if it was still in stock. Sure enough, a copy of Ultimate High soon became mine for about three and a half dollars.

My original plan was to find a good way to resell it and turn a quick profit. However, out of sheer curiosity, I popped the album into my player. The results are surprisingly decent. Perhaps not so surprising, however, if one considers that former New Radicals Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois were involved in the project. I enjoyed the Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too album, and a lot of these songs are in that style. I think the problem with this album, as detailed in the article above, is that a few minor alterations would have made this a solid adult-oriented pop album, but the label was intent on marketing it as teen pop.

While "You'll Never Meet God (If You Break My Heart)" seems a bit like the bastard child of "You'll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)" (thematically) and "Take Your Time (Do It Right)" (musically), many other tracks show a bit of spark and make for enjoyable listens, including "Just Missed the Train," "Beautiful You," "Surface Wound," and "Get You Off."

The album is surprisingly good enough that I'm considering actually keeping it in my collection. So much for my business sense!

Tracks:
1. Beautiful You
2. I'm Gonna Blow Your Mind
3. Surface Wound
4. You'll Never Meet God (If You Break My Heart)
5. No One's Safe from Goodbye
6. Young Love
7. I Need a Little Love
8. Get You Off
9. Rip in Heaven
10. All Kinds of People
11. Just Missed the Train
12. What I've Found