It is a little weird that we are now using Auto-Tune and other tools, once used to correct pitch and make non-singers into quasi-singers, as a sound effect to make a good singer sound like she can't sing:
I'm sure there is a melody in here somewhere but I damn sure can't find it in the mechanized noise that passes for Dawn's voice. Worse – the production, some weird rock-tinged dance/pop concoction, is just cacophony.
Dawn Richard has a pretty voice and I get that this historical moment doesn't much care for pretty voices unless they are big, dramatic power ballady voices. But this is unimaginably, heartbreakingly bad.
But….
…it gives me a chance to post my favorite Danity Kane song, "Right Now," which was written by Keri Hilson in the finest work she has yet done. All five girls sound great except Aundrea's bum note at the end of the chorus before the spoken outro kicks in. It really is the one and only time in their short career that they sounded like a vocal group.
But Dawn's second verse – "I must admit…baby, ooohhh you're kiss…" – kills me every. single. time. i hear it.
