In Blue

Produced by Robert John 'Mutt' Lange and Mitchell Froom, who Give the Irish Siblings' Music a Kick in the Arse. The New Sound is More Power Pop, Yet Retaining their Lush Harmonies.

Having proved with an MTV Unplugged session that they are more than just a bunch of pretty faces and can actually play their instruments, Celtic-poppers the Corrs returned to the studio for their third "proper" album. Owners of Unplugged will already be familiar with two of the tracks here, "At Your Side" and "Radio," which are given the full studio treatment and endowed with a much fuller sound. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily a good thing, as the album as a whole tends to be overproduced--taking the raw folky qualities and folding them into a far more sanitized whole. As a result, the standout tracks tend to be the more up-tempo ones--"Breathless" and "No More Cry." To be fair, when the Corrs are good, they're very, very good; but when they're bad, they're just dull. Unlike their previous albums, In Blue doesn't seem to be quite so flowing. With several different producers working on it (including Mr. Shania Twain, "Mutt" Lange), maybe it was a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. --Mel Roberts