Mandy Moore's "Wild Hope"

Mandy Moore has come a long way from her first album "So Real." She was young, and coming out when Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Christina Aguilera, and others were hitting the pop scene. While her image seemed to be very cookie-cutter and "cute," Mandy, full named Amanda - didn't want to be known as that.

Her new album, Wild Hope is such a huge departure from Mandy's previous efforts but she has also grown up A LOT since her last release of new material. She has focused more so on her great acting career in the past several years.
Wild Hope segregates herself from the pop that is out there today and put herself into a more singer-songwriter category - like that of Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan and Rachel Yamagata (who she co-writes with on a few of the tracks on this CD). This CD Mandy takes the direction of a more pop-folk road and it really works. It's a great summer CD. Reminds me of something you might hear at a coffee shop and then have the melodies stuck in your head for quite some time (if you did not know the artist).

The album is nicely balanced between mid-tempo tracks and piano ballads(highlights include "Extraordinary," "All Good Things," "Few Days Down," and the the strangely Fleetwood Mac-sounding "Nothing That You Are)," all pulled together by John Alagia's clean production and Moore's increasingly mature vocal work. Considering Moore's previous chart success(or lack thereof), this will probably be well regarded by the press but overlooked by music buyers, which is a shame because it's one of the best things going in pop music right now.