'Tuned In' review: Something burns behind Phillip Phillips' 'Light'
“American Idol” wraps its 13 season this week – meaning that as of Wednesday night, there will be 13 winners (not to mention 130 Top 10 finalists) jockeying around, trying to get whatever mileage they can out of the fading show.
Season 11 winner Phillip Phillips is doing better than most – and his unassuming demeanor plus his talents as a singer, guitarist and songwriter give him an edge for longevity. That said, the 23-year-old Georgia native has room for improvement, as evidenced by his new “Behind the Light.”
Phillips wrote or co-wrote all of the 12 tracks – most of them a crowd-pleasing mix of easy pop/rock with a hint of Americana along the lines of his previous hits “Home” and “Gone, Gone, Gone.”
His alluring rasp is more confident, and he’s branching out from his own formula, as on the solo-penned “Thicket” that builds cinematic urgency with strings while his voice swoops in to diffuse the tension. He also slides in some manly swagger on “Face,” and his maturity likewise shows in his plaintive wails on “Open Your Eyes” and with his forceful bluster on the bluesy rocky drama “Fly,” where he sings, “I feel it’s hard to say what’s not inside …”
Unfortunately, he finds it hard to say what IS inside, too. Some lyrics are pedestrian, which compounds issues with rote arrangements, and other lines simply don’t make much sense, as when he sings on “Unpack Your Heart,” “I’m on your side, so shed your shadow and watch it rise.” Or maybe on “Raging Fire,” where he sings, “Won’t you turn my soul into a raging fire?” Who wants their soul torched?
What’s more, Phillips burns out on fire references, starting well on the appealing opener “Sevenlight” (“There’s a fire in me that’s still burning”), then reigniting the theme on the subsequent “Raging Fire” and yet again on “Alive Again” (where he makes reference to a “flame on fire,” which begs the question: When is a flame not on fire?)
His lyrics may be tortured at times, but sometimes he nails it, as on the anthemic closer “Midnight Sun,” where he sings, “When you see yourself as the darkest shadow, I see you as the light.”
At least he didn’t say, “I see you as the fire.”
Rating: 3-1/2
http://www.knoxville.com/news/2014/m...illips-review/
better be the second single 
Unpack Your Heart is the real first single 
