Paris Bennett-Princess P

Record Label: 306 Entertainment

Year: 2007

Track Listing:
01. All Hail The Princess Intro
02. Ordinary Love
03. Dreamin’
04. Daddy
05. Let Me Rap (Featuring Kevin Covais A.K.A Chicken Little
06. My Boyfriend’s Back
07. Can’t Control Myself
08. Duet (featuring J. Isaac)
09. I’m So Hot (Interlude)
10. I’m So Hot
11. Get Bizzy
12. Caught Up
13. B-Bye
14. Burnt Up
15. I Will (Featuring James Grear & Company)
16. Best Friends (Featuring Ann Nesby And Jamecia Bennett)

The Juggernaut that is American Idol has over the years churned out some talented artists, including Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. Season Five introduced us to Paris Bennett, who week after week showed audiences why she was one of the top five finalists.

Following in the footsteps of her fellow season five graduates Taylor Hicks, Katherine McPhee, Chris Daughtry, and Kellie Pickler, sees Paris release her debut album Princess P.

After listening to Princess P’s Intro “All Hail The Princess”, I almost turned it off immediately. The intro was absolutely cringe-worthy, but I persevered, hoping that the album would get better.

Thankfully, “Ordinary Love” and “Dreamin’” highlight why Americans fell in love with the pint-sized Bennett in the first place. Both tracks showcase her extraordinary vocal range, and the maturity that belies her 18 years of age.

Produced by Jon Jon Traxx, "Ordinary Love" is definitely one of the better songs on Princess P. It has a Beyonce-feel to the song, which is not surprising considering Traxx has worked extensively with the former Destiny Child's star.

Well-written, it's a song that Bennett seems comfortable singing, and suits her vocal style as opposed to most of the other tracks on Princess P.

One of the silliest tracks on the album “Let Me Rap” sees her team up with Kevin Covais A.K.A Chicken Little - a fellow Season Five contestant. While the track is complete nonsense, and is more filler than anything else, it is probably one of the most charming.

While some may think it's more irritating than charming, I see it as a song that was never meant to be taken seriously, and sees Bennett and Corvais swapping rhymes and having fun. It's sung with affection, and in a sense shows how young and carefree Bennett still is.

At only just over a minute and a half it also allows Covais to showcase his own musical talents.

Unfortunately there are more bad tracks than good on Princess P, and this includes her cover of The Angel's "My Boyfriend's Back", which she completely butchers.

In attempting to make it her own, she updates the song. Lines such as “He’s kinda Gangsta” instead of “He’s kind of mean” made me cringe, and her announcement that “you’ve officially been princessed” reminded me why I wanted to turn the album off in the first place.

It is, without a doubt, one of the worst remakes of "My Boyfriend's Back" that I have ever heard, and one I never want to have to sit through, and listen to again.

My biggest problem with this album is that, save for four tracks (“I Will”, “Ordinary Love”, “Dreamin”, and “Caught up”), the rest of the album is weak. The songs have been poorly chosen and Bennett seems to stumble through them rather than shine.

This doesn’t mean that Paris doesn’t have the potential to be great, but she's not going to achieve it if she keeps producing crap like this.

I give it 1/5

Paris' official site

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