Search - Mila Mason :: That's Enough of That

Mila Mason's debut album, That's Enough of That, has already yielded two Top 20 country hits, the title track and "Dark Horse." There's very little traditional country content in these two singles or in their eight brethren, however. Instead this former model from Kentucky is yet another Nashville newcomer trying to imitate the Southern-California soft-rock of Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, and Christine McVie. There's nothing wrong with this sub-genre--either in its '70s Hollywood incarnation or its '90s Music Row version--and such artists as Trisha Yearwood, Kim Richey, and Matraca Berg have squeezed brilliant music out of this formula. Mason, though, has neither the voice nor the material to match their accomplishments. Mason has a pleasant enough soprano, but without the power or range to separate herself from the parade of videogenic new singers marching out of Nashville these days. Her producer Blake Mevis, who has worked with everyone from George Strait to Lorrie Morgan, has given her country-pop arrangements that stand up to anything in town without standing apart from any of it. The album's 10 songs represent the work of 21 different songwriters, including such proven hitmakers as Bob DiPiero, Mark D. Sanders, and Gary Scruggs, but this wasn't their top-drawer material. Too many songs turn on contrived puns (a homely man is "Hot to Molly;" her love is riding a "Dark Horse") or maudlin platitudes (you'll never find a "Heart Without a Past;" she shouldn't think of her ex but "Tonight I Know I Will"). --Geoffrey Himes