Bea Miller - Not An Apology (Album Review)

Bea Miller is probably most known for being 9th place on X-Factor season 2. Reality show singing stars can be major hits and misses with me. On one hand Kelly Clarkson released one great album with Breakaway and Daughtry's debut album was pretty catchy for what it was as well. On the other hand there have been countless contestants pop up from the various shows with less than stellar albums. In fact some of them have released some pretty horrendous albums. I mean I'm talking ear-bleeding awful. I usually steer my ship pretty clear from most of them, but occasionally one lands on my radar. Bea Miller's album is one of the cases. After hearing "Young Blood" I thought the album might be at least interesting to check out.

Bea Miller's Not An Apology is a fun sounding pop album with alternative edges that will definitely please fans of Kelly Clarkson's breakout album Breakaway and Demi Lovato's Here We Go Again. This isn't surprising since Lovato took Miller out on tour with her after X-Factor. I could also see her music possibly pleasing fans of Lorde. I think the first song on the album, "Young Blood", could definitely appeal to that fan base. Even more so the song "Dracula" which rides a bass heavy beat that features vocals and lyrics that are very Lorde-ish. Lyrically it isn't my favorite song on the album, but the beat is pretty darn catchy. In some ways the beat has the abrasive vibe that reminds me of something you would hear on a Sleigh Bells album. "Force Of Nature" shows off Bea Miller's vocal ability in a nice way. It's a super catchy pop song that has some interesting and catchy lyrics. "Not An Apology" is a nice pop/rock song that adds some good energy to the back half of the album. It's a song that immediately stuck out to me on first listen.

The big drawback to this album is it's pretty safe. That isn't surprising because most of the music sounds ready for radio and mass appeal. Most of the songs on Not An Apology follow a paint by numbers approach that's been done time and time again and possibly better by others (See: Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway album). Now that's not a detriment to the album necessarily because Miller is a fairly new and fairly young artist. It may take her some time to find that super standout moment, album, or song. I think that she is very talented vocally. There are enough songs on this album that are good enough to cause people to stop and listen, although not much that pushes the genre or style. Ultimately that might influence the lifespan of the album somewhat.

While Not An Apology isn't breaking the pop mold it is done pretty well. It does a few different popular radio styles and while that could be seen as hedging bets for a hit I think most of the styles are performed pretty nicely. It's catchy and has some upbeat pop/rock moments mixed with somber introspective moments. There are tracks that are more beat based and then tracks that rely on the pop/radio rock formula heavily. Miller does a more than admirable job on the album vocally. I could see quite a few of these songs being big hits with fans and big radio/internet hits. Overall it's a pretty fun summer pop album.