Artist Erin McCarley

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Erin McCarley

It's a little tricky to figure out how Erin McCarley ranks in the world of bubbly, optimistic singer-songwriters, and that's mostly a good thing. On McCarley's debut for Universal Republic, Love, Save The Empty, she and producing/songwriting partner Jamie Kenney craft songs bright and clichéd enough for the pop charts and the TV-soundtrack circuit, yet tracks like "Blue Suitcase" and "Sleepwalking" get a nice lift from strings and playful percussion that spread out around McCarley's tasteful mid-range vocals. It might be more of a credit to the production than to the songwriting—again, hard to say—but it's fairly rewarding as these things go.

Updated 09/29/2009