Elliott Yamin

Track Listings: 1. Movin On 2. Wait For You 3. Find a Way 4. One Word 5. You Are the One 6. I'm the Man 7. Trainwreck 8. Free 9. Alright 10. Take My Breath Away 11. A Song For You Original Release Date: March 20 2007 Number of Discs: 1 Label: Hickory Records

Elliott Yamin's debut is so agreeable and well-executed it may well convert hardened R&B experts--the kind who'd normally distance themselves from a disc with a TV pedigree. With sincerity and a voice that vaults itself to places no talent-show contestant should be able to go, Yamin bares his soul here in a way that would do his hero, Donny Hathaway, proud. Tracks like "Take My Breath Away" and "You Are the One" find him twisting a wrench around love-stained lyrics; "I'm the Man" and "Find A Way" flow with hat-in-hand grace (and, in the case of the latter, a scat worthy of a vintage jazz stage); and opener "Movin' On" immortalizes the season five judges'-table words of Paula Abdul: Ellliott Yamin is "one funky white boy." As he proves with this five-star album, he is also among the most gifted artists ever to a turn a stint on the show into a recording career. --Tammy La Gorce