There is no denying Idina Menzel is a dynamic and multifaceted performer. Ask anyone from the 6-year-old who has been belting out “Frozen” tunes for the past two years to the avid theater lover who saw Menzel perform on Broadway in “Wicked” and “Rent” — her mastery as a vocalist and performer is incontestable. Both onstage and on-screen, the Tony winner has proved her musical prowess again and again.
Menzel’s newest album “Idina,” released Friday, had the potential to further showcase Menzel’s undeniable vocal dexterity. However, the attempt fell short.
Prior to the album’s release, Menzel told fans “Idina” would be more deeply personal than any of her previous music. “I just got in the studio and did what made me feel good or bad and worked through it,” she explained. If Menzel had indeed made an album that focused on vulnerability while retaining her unique vocal sound, the outcome could have been a smashing success. However, in reality the outcome is lackluster — instead of highlighting a different side of Menzel, the album blanches her individuality and fails to showcase any of her unique abilities.
“Idina” consists of 12 songs, almost all of which fall neatly under the umbrella of pop music. These songs are almost unremittingly one-dimensional with few exceptions. Numbers like “Cake”, “Like Lightning” and “Queen of Swords” fit right into the mold of generic pop music and dim Menzel’s electricity as a performer.
Although elements of the album are personal and touch on topics such as the aftermath of her recent divorce, Menzel does not bring the same emotional gravity to the album as she has in her past work. Perhaps this is why numbers like “Perfect Story” and “I Do” are simultaneously both vulnerable and predictable — while they share intimate stories, they can’t seem to escape the box of pop cliches that Menzel has put herself in. One outlier in the album was “Nothin’ in this World,” a crooning jazz ballad that stands out among a dozen nearly indistinguishable pop ditties. This single highlight begs the question of whether Menzel is delving into the right genre for her voice.
For Menzel fans, it may be difficult to appreciate the new album while considering her powerful performances of the past. For someone who has never heard of Menzel, there is simply not enough noteworthy material on the album to catch his or her attention. Too many of the songs lack originality and are instead more akin to feeble recreations of her Disney smash hit “Let It Go.” Perhaps Menzel is attempting to let go of her theatrical and emotionally intense sound — but by letting go of what sets her apart from other artists, Menzel runs the risk of fading into the cacophony of commonplace pop singers.
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