Sweetness rules on
Colbie Caillat's debut,
Coco, which is perhaps only appropriate for an album bearing that name, but the record doesn't play like a toasty mug of chocolate on a winter's day, it's a sugary lemonade on a breezy summer afternoon. It's light and comforting, a familiar blend of sunny pop and singer/songwriter tropes that flirt with cliché but never sound hackneyed -- a lighter, brighter spin on
Norah Jones that sounds like an ideal soundtrack to a few hours in a cozy coffeehouse or a montage on Grey's Anatomy, whatever comes first. If that gives the impression that
Caillat is a little calculated -- and if her music-biz heritage (her dad co-produced
Fleetwood Mac's
Rumours and Tusk) gives the sense that she may have had a silver spoon, and if her celebrated MySpace popularity is also initially suspect -- then as an album
Coco shows no crassness or coldness: it flows easily and, yes, sweetly, filled with gently ingratiating melodies and delivered with warmth and a casual charisma that proves to be quite endearing by the end of the record.
Caillat doesn't attempt anything approaching a major statement -- the album is filled with songs about love and life -- but that's her appeal: she sings about simple, everyday things in an unassuming manner, letting her melodies and girl-next-door charm carry the day, and they do so winningly on this nicely mellow debut. [A U.K. version was also released.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine