Anna Semenovich: "Rumors"

Here's a surprise;  this is actually pretty good!  This week has seen the release of a debut album by Moscow songstress, Anna Semenovich.  Entitled "Rumors" (Slukhi), it follows in the path of a similar recording made eight years ago by Ol'ga Orlova, called "First" (Pervyi).

Both women are ex-members of the female ensemble Blestiashchie (which they - once upon a time - translated into English as "Shining").  When Orlova left the group - whose makeup is constantly changing - she branched out with a solo album, which helped to keep her in the forefront of (mild) public attention for some while.

Semenovich left recently and has attempted the same.  She made three albums with Blestiashchie, which - sadly - were not among the most interesting.  Over the last few years, the band's sound has become much less important than their look.  Hence the important role played by Semenovich's physique, which remains the cause of much public interest - and the likely reason her TV career will last longer than that of Orlova.

Her predecessor's CD was a most conservative affair, reminiscent of MOR divas such as Alena Apina or Katia Lel', both of whom aim for a very unchallenging and mature audience.  Semenovich, however, is gunning for the youth market in three ways.

Firstly, many of these tracks could easily be taken from the repertoire of Blestiashchie;  she is not, as was Orlova, looking for a sound of increasing artistic maturity.

Secondly, Semenovich includes several duets here, all with bankable male artists, such as the Iranian pop star Arash, the young Russian rapper Timati (at the top of this post), or showman extraordinaire, Filipp Kirkorov.  These are not the best tracks on the album and - quite frankly - she doesn't need that kind of company to garner extra attention.  Sufficient time, interest, and money has already been spent on the songwriting of "Slukhi" to produce a decent debut.

The album fades towards the end, not helped by an excess of karaoke numbers and woeful remixes by DJ Gruv, but if we take the solo tracks alone, dispersed evenly across the CD, it's clear that Semenovich has a very decent voice that was previously hidden under the vocals of her co-performers.

Her sense of humor and irony are both well-developed, and the playful tone coloring the better tracks even warrants comparisons with the work of Larisa Chernikova from the late '90s - when pop songwriting started to mature.

In short:  let's get rid of the duets with male "stars," trim the karaoke material, and we've got a half-decent pop debut.  Considering how much experience Semenovich already has as TV/sports presenter and now actress (above), she should have no trouble keeping her face in the limelight.  It just seems as if her producers had a little less faith.  Shame on them.