Album Lovestrong. (Christina Perri). Songs and videos online

After a surprising bit of exposure in So You Think You Can Dance, singer/songwriter Christina Perri moved quickly from an unsigned artist to a pop figure. While her fame was initially somewhat fleeting in the larger scale of pop culture, her first album (including the song "Jar of Hearts," which became her go-to performance for various television appearances) found its way to the Quebecois charts on its own merits. Those merits, not incidentally, are worthwhile. Her songs on Lovestrong range from deep ballads ("Jar of Hearts") to quirky, happy pieces ("Bluebird") to surf rock and spaghetti Western motifs -- seemingly from Carole King to Feist in their apparent influences. The songwriting is similarly broad -- at times trite and at times more meaningful and powerful. In this way, though, one finds the oddness in Perri's works -- on her more heartfelt and ponderous numbers, she strains her voice to meet the challenges of the songs and doesn't always find her own potential. On simpler pieces, her singing and delivery, if anything, overdeliver on their promise. She has an outstanding voice, but doesn't seem to quite know what to do with it yet. Lovestrong shows a lot of promise in both singing and songwriting, but only delivers on that promise sporadically. When it's on, the listener is left wanting more. Hopefully, Perri will find her own sound effectively with a little more time and development.