JaneDear girls

Recording information: Blackbird Studios, Nashville TN; Brewbeat, Nashville, TN; David Axelrod Studio, Nashville, TN; Ollywood Studios, Hollywood, CA; Petey Boy Studios, Simi Valley, CA; RW Recordings, Beverly Hills, CA; Sony Tree Studios, Nashville, TN.
Photographer: Kristin Barlowe.
The bigfoot stomp of the JaneDear girls' debut album isn't entirely unfamiliar ground for producer John Rich, but he's not exactly forcing his Big & Rich gonzo blueprint upon Susie Brown and Danelle Leverett either. Brown and Leverett are commercially savvy enough to know what sells, whether it's the va-va-voom glamour of their album cover or the Auto-Tuned vocals on the Miranda Lambert-meets-Carrie Underwood thump of "Merry Go Round," and they have a hand in the writing of every song here. Sometimes this professionalism results in a tad too much slickness, particularly when the duo eases into ballads that surge so strongly no emotion registers, but when the JaneDear girls are flirting with tacky, spangly four-four beats and hook-heavy crossovers, they wind up with appealingly glitzy, crisp country-pop. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine