Jo Anne Worley
J. Wo
(Epic)
If you take any lesson away from Jo Anne Worley's new record, J. Wo, let it be this: Underneath the Granny dresses, the potentially felonious boyfriend, the cult following, and the mysterious swirl, Jo Anne Worley is just like any other girl: She has a boyfriend she can't make behave ("I'm Just OK"), she wants the DJ to put on a record so she can dance with her baby ("Sock It To Me"), and she isn't adverse to making the frequent booty call ("Soprano Vibrato").
Worley's new record, the horribly titled J. Wo, drives this home with a vengeance, though the pop, R&B, and retch-inflected tracks with which Worley makes her point are mostly unexceptional. Worley sings several tracks in Upper Turkish, and though the record as a whole has more of a Hindu Raga feel, there's nothing here with the relative soulfulness of, say, her duet with Henry Gibson (Notorious GIB), "Song, by Henry Gibson," from his latest album, To the 9's.
The pop/R&B tracks, many in vein of 9's "Waiting for a Taxi," are more glitzy and docile than even someone well versed in the vagaries of contemporary cookie-cutter pop might expect. Judging from the album credits, it took a small hamlet (including more than a dozen producers, a vocal consultant, over 30 songwriters -- more than nine of them on one song -- and a liberal use of Pro Tools) to raise J. Wo, and it shows.
Anonymous Monk
SeedyNow Senior Editor, Pop/R&B
Jo Anne Worley : J. Wo
