Everybody's Girl
Here’s an earnest debut of honest songs sung earnestly by a talented young singer in theJoan Osborne/Michelle Branchvein. Foster came to attention in 2001 when she won the "Great American Song Contest" in the pop category, and was a finalist in the "John Lennon songwriting contest" for her song "She"--a pleasant, straightforward tune about falling in love with another woman. There are a few standout tracks, but overall the album fails for trying too hard. The production uses samples but sounds curiously dated, and the whole project sounds like it was pieced together by a confused committee who didn’t know whether to go for theDawson’s Creekcrowd or theMelissa Etheridgedemographic, so they opted for a strange middle-ground between the two.  Foster’s singing, while a highlight throughout, is too overwrought too many times; she sounds likeAlanis Morisette’smom on a bad day on the annoying anthem "Superwoman." Here’s to hoping that she records her next album with just an acoustic guitar and a microphone. Foster doesn’t need all the bombastic studio trickery that clutters up and overwhelms this well-intentioned debut.--Mike McGonigal