Serendipity Media

Though best known for her roles in Mystic River, The Day After Tomorrow and the 2004 film remake of The Phantom of the Opera, Emmy Rossum's first love was music. A member of the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus at age seven, Rossum sang in twenty different operas over the course of five years. 2007 finds her temporarily stepping away from a blossoming acting career to focus on her first album. Produced by Stuart Brawley (Brandy, Nick Lachey), also Rossum's co-writer on every song other than her Carpenters cover, Inside Out reads like a collection of pop tunes dressed up in classy, ethereal soundscapes. At times, Rossum channels Annie Lennox over an Imogen Heap-lite backdrop, while other songs bring to mind Michelle Tumes' ambient, classically-inspired sound or Dido's No Angel-era alternative pop. Lead single "Slow Me Down" sounds like an adult contemporary version of Heap's vocoder-driven marvel "Hide and Seek," dulling down its punch for an angelic, easy listening interpretation. Though never a cappella, the sparse nature of these songs force the vocals to the front and center, heightened all the more by the immense choir effect that Rossum's multi-tracked voice takes on. Unfortunately, Inside Out is a project that, more often than not, reinforces the initial instinct that above all else, Rossum is an actress first. From her affected vocals to the overdone promo photos plastered across the album insert, little here feels natural. And though the atmosphere this music creates may be breathtaking, it does not make up for the lightweight lyrical ideas displayed on the majority of songs. "Stay," "High" and "Falling," the album's worst offender, read like a typical teen pop tracks on obsessive infatuation, while "Lullaby" offers some generic words of encouragement. Yet despite such lackluster songwriting, a few songs do carry some emotional weight. "The Great Divide" is an airy, otherworldly seven minute plea to renew communication, the hushed anxiety of "Don't Stop Now" documents the discovery of a cheating boyfriend and "Anymore" plays like an open letter to an absent parent. Rossum should be applauded for taking an unexpected approach to her debut, neither relinquishing to expectations of a classical album nor setting out down the well-worn path to compete for this year's tacky pop tart crown. Unfortunately, Inside Out's words can not match its lovely, layered sound.