Constantine's debut!

Like many other fans of Constantine, I eagerly anticipated the release of his solo album. Beaten to the charts by most (if not all) of this current season as well as Season 5's peers, we had to wait extra long. And given all of his artistic pursuits since Idol days went idle for him (hosting Idol Extra!, numerous appearances on Good Day New York, two stints on Broadway, a tour with his -former- band PFTSOB....) I had to wonder, WHAT will he come up with ?

News that Connie decided to fund the record himself by forming his own publishing company (Sixth Place Records) was a little disheartening.....I couldn't figure out why the likes of Bucky Covington, Kellie Pickler among others had managed to procure record deals while Connie (clearly the stand-out non-winner of Season 4) had to dig through his couch cushions to produce something we could listen to baffled me. Granted, he shot out of the post-AI cannon with a flash....fueled most notably with news of a Kelsey Grammar-speared sitcom in the works? but many another public sitings to boot (okay, I admit....I TiVo'ed Bold and the Beautiful!!!) Could his 15 minutes have parlayed itself in about 27 minutes, only to fizzle completely? I was convinced that only I had seen and heard the great Connie, and that when his CD materialized, the world would surely share my view that Connie had been robbed.

Well....the CD isn't very good. Granted, it's not horrible....I didn't wince when I played it and managed to keep all 4 tires of the minivan squarely in my lane....but, it lacks a finesse, a power, a punch, a what the French call, "I don't know what." Some of the tunes are quite catchy, I like the first 2 a lot...but has a juvenile-sounding quality that I, for one, will attribute solely to production and not to talent....we'll save that analysis for his sophomore effort (if there is one). It also jumps all over the map in terms of genres.....pop, rock, ballad, country.....kind of like a season of AI will....so in that sense, it's the Connie we know and love....but in the end, it just doesn't work for a CD and I think, does NOT show the world what Constantine is capable of. It's just too hard to compare the debut of Elliot with Constantine, since the former totally SMOKES him in terms of the CD....

The one good thing is that unlike the PFTSOB CD I ordered from Amazon, this effort by Constantine does NOT have an 'explicit lyrics' sticker and is therefore minivan-worthy :)