Album Review: Gloriana by Gloriana

Gloriana's stylized synthesis of Fleetwood Mac and '70s Californian country-rock is designed to elicit astonished gasps of "they sure don't make them like this anymore" -- which is more or less true, especially when the group's composition is taken into the equation. Gloriana is an old-fashioned construction of a band, assembled mainly from old pros who haven't quite hit the big time yet -- although Cheyenne Kimball, veteran of America's Most Talented Kid and her own MTV reality show in 2006, came close. The group has been put through major-label machinations, singing songs from professional songwriters and being produced by Matt Serletic, best-known for his work with Matchbox 20 and Collective Soul, and now launching his own Emblem label with Gloriana as its flagship debut artist.

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Despite this Nashville foursome’s attempts to garner comparisons to ?Fleetwood Mac — the first track here all but breaks out into the chorus of ”Rhiannon” — the vast majority of their debut album, Gloriana, falls somewhere between maudlin boy-band songwriting clichés and? a particularly melodramatic Six Flags country revue. But the simpler tunes someone sneaked onto the end (”Come and Save Me,” ”Time to Let Me Go”) show promise. Lose the tinny, cheesy overproduction and half of the hair product, and these kids might have something.

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