14 DAY TRIAL // Admittedly, critics agree Brooke Hogan has the perfect pop voice, but always comes out with mediocre materials at best, because she allows whoever is behind the mixing board in the studio to do away completely with her sound. The same happened with her second album too, “The Redemption,” a release that failed to get critics singing its praise and fans to buy it, as SocialiteLife informs.
“The Redemption” did not get much promotion prior to release, for rather obvious reasons: as most glossy mags and celebrity blogs point out, while Brooke is undoubtedly a celebrity, she is “not quite there” and is yet to be taken seriously for what she does. Still, the fact that it was known it would include songs written in the aftermath of the Hogan divorce, when mother Linda started dating a man younger even than Brooke herself, did help build up hype for it.
Unfortunately, from what the aforementioned publication says, it just wasn’t enough to make the album move up the charts. “Brooke Hogan’s latest album, ‘The Redemption,’ debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at #144, with 3,381 copies sold. Ouch. She held an album release party at Mansion in Miami this past Friday night. A full ten days after the album debuted.” SocialiteLife writes in a recent post. Appearances at Wall-Mart to promote the album did not speak in favor of it either, other US publications point out.
As fans must know, Brooke is not devoid of talent, which is also the one thing critics agree on as well. However, they say, she is too caught up in the idea of becoming the next Britney Spears that she allows herself to be handled in all directions until her music loses all personal touch and she becomes just a mere “instrument” belting out tunes. The same goes for “The Redemption” as well, an album that could have had serious potential if Brooke had taken a stand to make her own music, in the sense of having the final say in it, critics believe.
“Britney [Spears]’s ‘Blackout’ is a clear sonic template for ‘Redemption,’ with Brooke happily embracing whatever role is handed her, only taking control on her vitriolic attack on her mother, delivered completely with an actual argument pasted over the bridge, and the ominous self-empowerment of the title track. Apart from this, Brooke is singing with gusto through layers of Auto-Tune, letting her producers fit her into tracks that provide the throbbing soundtrack to a very late Saturday night.” Stephen Thomas Erlewine from All Music Guide writes on StarPulse.