Rose Ranger

Replies, the debut recording by Vancouver singer Rose Ranger, is a very polished affair. She recruited Craig Zorba (who used to be in the band Agent) to both produce and co-write some of the songs, and his experience makes a definite difference. Inviting some of Vancouver's best musicians to play on the CD didn't hurt either. Nor does Ranger's powerful voice, which suits the material perfectly. So it is difficult to fault the album technically because of the pedigree it possesses. The problem is that most of the songs really lack their own identity, with the whole album merging into what sounds like an FM radio station playing nothing but female AOR songs. Only the remix of "Fly" stands out from the rest, but if you take each song in isolation, that wouldn't be a problem at all; small doses work best. There is definitely an audience out there for Replies, but I really wouldn't classify myself as one of them.