New From Flo Rida and Kathleen Edwards

FLO RIDA “Mail on Sundays” (Poe Boy/Atlantic) 1 { stars

Carol City homeboy Flo Rida is one of the biggest success stories in the pop world this year, with his hit “Low” featuring T-Pain topping the Billboard Hot 100 for 11 consecutive weeks. The track has become so well-known that the release of Flo Rida’s full-length debut album doesn’t feel new.

Same goes for the bulk of “Mail on Sunday”"s tracks, which, like much of today’s hip-hop, is heavy on collaborations. Rapper Rick Ross recently explained to The Miami Herald, “We’re all going in the same direction, artists making music.” But that sense of community can make the music sound all the same.

“American Superstar,” featuring Lil’ Wayne, is brimming with boasts about b—-es, money and shout-outs to Ocean Drive and 3-0-5. Not exactly pushing the creative envelope. Sean Kingston’s faux reggae can’t lift “Roll,” with a chorus like “Lemme see that a– roll.”"Priceless,” featuring Birdman, cops 50 Cent’s “In da Club”: “I pulled up to the club on dubs/They say look at them go.”"In the Ayer,” featuring will.i.am, has more talk about pullin’ up on dubs. How many songs can get away with obsessing over rims?

Even Timbaland can’t offer anything fresh. “Elevator,” the album’s second single, is a paint-by-numbers effort from the prolific producer, its monotone vocals aping the repetitive chorus to Rihanna’s monster hit “Umbrella” _ “This girl is stuck on my ele-uhh-elevator.”

Only “Low” and “Ms. Hangover,” a surprisingly charming and clever ode to popular club drinks _ “She had Hennessy hips and Bell-V eyes/Grey Goose on her lips and cognac thighs” _ have any staying power.

Pod Picks: “Low,”"Ms. Hangover.”

_Michael Hamersly

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KATHLEEN EDWARDS “Asking for Flowers” (Zoe/Rounder) 3 stars

Like most alternative-country artists, Kathleen Edwards doesn’t have much of a singing voice. It has little range, no body to speak of, no tonal quality to make it stand out. But what Edwards lacks in vocal distinction, she makes up for in songwriting skill. The Edmonton, Canada singer-songwriter is a deft storyteller, heard to best effect on the harrowing tale “Alicia Ross.” A girl “with a forgettable face” is forcefully pulled off her front steps by a man she may have known from work or school. He “laid me in his garden/all the years I’ve watched him tend” and he “took me, Mamma, so I could never tell you about it.” Was it an act of sexual indiscretion? Murder? Both? “Now I’m a girl whose face they’ll never forget,” Edwards sings ominously in the final line.

Edwards has some of the lyrical heft and precision of some of the best Canadian songsmiths like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. Check her out on the sublime title track when she laments seven wasted years on a relationship that has left her drained, “like a picture left out too long in the sun.”

“Asking for Flowers” adds familiar session musicians like Bob Glaub and Benmont Tench to her core group and the rich sound is only vaguely country _ only the biting “I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory” qualifies as true country _ but her melodies are as engaging as her words.

Pod Picks: “I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory,”"Asking for Flowers.”

_Howard Cohen

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(c) 2008, The Miami Herald.

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