Fefe Dobson - Sunday Love (2006)

On her sophomore sampling, Sunday Love, Fefe Dobson, a Canadian pop/rock princess whose career was affected by the ever-increasingly popular Avril Lavigne, makes it clear she wants to do something different this time around. Like Lavigne, it is clear that Dobson hopes to establish herself as an artist rather than a singer; within a minute of listening to the first track on the album, "As a Blonde," Dobson shouts about trying different things and changing up her personality. Well, at least she tried. Sunday Love isn't a radical change in Dobson as potentially expected. Rather, it is, in essence, another copy of her debut album, which promoted hard rock sounds over whiny pop vocals. The results on Sunday Love are no worse than Dobson's self-titled debut; they just don't stray far from the formula. There are more ballads this time around, such as the emotional "This Is My Life" or the pleading "Get over Me," but the upbeat songs are much less catchy than those found on her original set (with one exception, "The Initiator"). "As a Blonde" toes the line between singing and shouty, and "If I Was a Guy" just crosses over the aforementioned line. However, Dobson doesn't quite understand that shoutier tracks with more "meaningful" ballads don't represent a change in the artist, or a standard in an artist; it just means you can shout and pen a track. In the end, Sunday Love is not a bad album in the least; as a formulaic, generic sample, it works just fine. And on a track by track score, it probably would fare better than her debut. However because it's the second album by Dobson, and we are aware of her ability to coin really great tracks, Sunday Love pales in comparison because it adds nothing new to the table. Ultimately, there has to be a more definitive Dobson before she can try to take on Avril Lavigne. Heck, there has to be a more definitive Dobson before she can try to take on Lillix! Change is great, if you can pull it off in the right direction. Dobson claims she tried, but it's hard to see the effort here.