Maria McKee - Late December Album Review

Maria McKee
Late December
Album Review

Maria McKee's solo output has been one that has become increasingly melodramatic, and a lot less predictable and, occasionally a lot less listenable. The rock diva still has a voice that can carry almost any song (proved by covering her own distinctly average A Good Heart here). Here she moves further from her rock roots on her sixth studio release, with quasi-operas sung in a vibrato that sounds more than a little unhinged occasionally.

It is genuinely hard to see who songs like Destine are for - maybe they're just a lot easier to write than proper songs. Thankfully, there are some great straight songs that recall the old Maria. My First Night Without You has a wonderful soul/country cross that would have fitted on her debut album. No Other Way to Love You is as good as anything she's ever written, her unique voice still soaring, and One Eye On The Sky is satisfying too. Overall, then, this is a mixed bag of an album - half points to the Maria McKee everyone can love, half to one whose theatrical oddness makes it more difficult.

3/5

Mike Rea