Goodbye Yesterday

Amber Rhodes' portrait on Goodbye Yesterday gives the impression of simplicity, with just a touch, thanks to the lip-gloss, wispy blond hair, and jewelry, of elegance. It's also easy to gain the impression, with this elegant simplicity, that she is a country singer. While this impression holds true here and there on Goodbye Yesterday, overall, the album offers a broad mixture of styles and approaches, mingling pop, country, and rock; shifting suddenly from relaxed, rootsy ballads to bombastic country rock. The title cut, for instance, is a lovely acoustic ballad, with guitars and mandolins providing the ideal underpinning for Rhodes' breathy, mid- to high range vocals. A similar country-folk feel is achieved to good effect on "Goodnight Lullaby." Rhodes, however, trades in roots country for bombastic pop-rock-country on "Return Again," an approach that seems miles away from the roots style of the title cut. Even within pop/rock, however, the guitar work veers closer to heavy country twang, making "Return Again" a strange jumble of approaches. Anchored by a heavy bass, "Leave It Up to You" maps out similar ground and, once again, includes a country-flavored guitar in the midst of a fairly heavy pop song. Taken one at a time, there are a number of likable songs on Goodbye Yesterday; taken as a whole, however, the album is a hodgepodge of stylistic approaches. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., Rovi