Mandy Moore’s Wild Hope leaked all over the Internet this weekend, a good two months before its scheduled release date. There’s a lot riding on this album: Not only would Moore and her label, The Firm Music, like to convince listeners that her teen-pop days are long gone, but numerous music magazine editors are hoping Horses justifies the surprisingly high amount of pre-release press they’ve been giving it. “Extraordinary” is the first single, and let’s just say you can hear the influence of both Rachel Yamagata and Zach Braff, so proceed with caution:
Mandy Moore – Extraordinary [MP3, link expired]
I’m missing the old Mandy Moore. Like candy.
From tween candy to adult contemporary. Like so many career paths.
She totally ragged on Saved! during her interview with Jane, which gets minus points from me. If she can’t realize how great that movie is, then I’m not buying her new “Look at me, I’m an adult now” nonsense.
Does the owl do guest vocals?
I can’t help thinking the owl has something to do with this:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002IB9.01.LZZZZZZZ.j…
@Ned Raggett: I was just about to say that.
And Chris N., if this album is half Bowie, half Nicks, I will have a hetero heart attack. AWESOME.
Mandy’s an OK actor and seems like a sweet kid (not in an obnoxious, Drew Barrymore “Adoooooooooooorable” sort of way)—-but what is the point of this? She can barely sing.
There was a point in time when Mandy Moore was primarily a recording artist. She’s trying that singing thing again.
…..I should have known better than to listen to this, but… I was wondering how much she had changed since the “Candy” days. My kids played it to death back when they were in grade school, along with the Backstreets and N’Sync.
…..The song tantalized with the little opening 7th fret electric guitar harmonic, and then it was not to be heard again. There were still plenty of pop synths in her stuff, but there was some plastic guitar added in hard right and left, and there was a decent vintage-sounding electric piano in there, too. Silly me, I thought she might actually going to be doing something wild.
…..She’s an ok singer, with decent projection.
I dug her “coverage” album, but after listening to this song I feel like I’ve just been stuck in an elevator for 3 and a half minutes.
Speaking as one of the masses who “came upon” a full version of the album over the weekend, I have to say that there are a couple of decent tracks, and some perfectly serviceable background tracks- nothing offensive to my ears. As of right now, I can say that I’ll be listening to it for a longer period of time than Volta – and if that means I have to hand in my internet hipster ID badge, then so be it.
I can’t wait to see this marketed on an endcap (or whatever they the hell call them) at Starbucks.