Ruben Studdard

After winning over legions of TV viewers on the hit reality show American Idol, Ruben Studdard returns with his much-anticipated debut LP. The aptly-titledSoulful is chock-full of glossy production and smooth crooning, with autobiographical tales and lovelorn lyrics.

Each American Idol cd has been worse than the one before it, which makes the debut
album of last season's winner, Ruben Studdard, very poor indeed. This has little to do with
Studdard himself, although, like the other Idols, he's essentially an imitative singer; he
hasn't learned how to fill his pretty tenor pipes with convincing emotion, something
painfully clear on his ill-advised cover of the Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend a Br... More >