Melinda Doolittle's Soulless Soul

I don’t watch American Idol, but unsurprisingly, the times I’ve watched it, I’ve loathed it. Listening to the singers, even the ones with good technical voices, butcher some great songs – it’s just excruciating. Nor can I get into it on a post-modern “it’s so bad, it’s good” level. I get no joy laughing at the self-deluded contestants – I just end up feeling icky and uncomfortable. Even the amongst the singers who possess technically strong voices, I find no emotion conveyed in their singing except for perhaps their own banal ambition to win.

I write this because I’ve spent the past week or so listening to Melinda Doolittle’s new album, Coming Back To You. Doolittle was a controversial runner up on American Idol a couple of seasons ago. Simon Cowell thought the result was unfair and that Doolittle should have won instead of Jordin Sparks. I can’t say that she deserved to win, as I didn’t watch the show. But if Coming Back To You is any indication, Doolittle will soon be consigned to the dustbin where most Idol performers languish, soon to be forgotten, except perhaps as the answer to a trivia question, or a contestant on a future reality TV show.

Doolittle has a strong voice, but it signifies nothing except that she’s got a gift that she doesn’t really know how to use. Her singing exists solely to convey itself, rather than the emotional truths that a great vocalist communicates. Her voice swoops, dives and competently executes the classic gospel influenced inflections, but it has the all the warmth and inspiration of a deodorant commercial. The songs – all covers – float by harmlessly and pointlessly. And on the two Robert Johnson covers, “Dust My Broom” and “Walkin’ Blues,” Doolittle drains the songs of their sexuality and dread – their authentic humanity – making them fit for perhaps a turn singing them to Oscar the Grouch when she makes a promo appearance on Sesame Street.

Melinda Doolittle may be a soul singer in the context of a genre, but in reality, she is anything but a soul singer. Safe, banal and harmless are all adjectives that disappear when truly soulful music is present.

Dust My Broom - Melinda Doolit...