Published Nov. 14, 2003, in the Kansas State Collegian

Review by Matthew Webber

Like all other teenage pop star/actresses, Mandy Moore wants to grow up. So, on her new album, "Coverage," she sings songs she didn't write.

This, of course, is no different from her younger albums, but the gimmick here is these songs are written by Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Cat Stevens, Blondie, Todd Rundgren and other artists who were popular before Moore was alive.

Every song on "Coverage" is a cover.

So every song is an improvement on earlier Moore-sung slop like "Candy."

Moore recruited producer John Fields to record the album in his garage, wanting to rock out from the comfort of suburbia. Her garage band of seasoned studio pros plays all the right notes in all the right places, playing-by-numbers as precisely as computers.

Moore rocks out as much as she is able, limited only by her serviceable but not spectacular voice, her lack of credibility as an artist and her reverence for the originals.

The sweetest songs on the album -- "The Whole of the Moon," "Drop the Pilot" and "Have a Little Faith in Me" -- are impossible to screw up. Moore, like your one friend who takes karaoke entirely too seriously, doesn't even try to tamper with them.

"Coverage" is the album the cast of "American Idol" would have made circa 1981. It is as much of a product -- as opposed to a work of art -- as anything Moore has recorded. As Guns 'N Roses had their "Spaghetti Incident," "Coverage" is Moore's "Bell-Bottom-Era Affair."

But "Coverage" is catchy. It's so slick it sticks in my head. It includes songs by originals, so how can it not be anything but classic?

As a singer and an actress, Moore is little more than mediocre. But as a compiler of mix tapes, she's a genius! If "Coverage" inspires any of her age cohorts to seek out the original albums on which these songs appeared, she'll become more useful than Jessica Simpson.

Authentic or not, Moore sings good songs. Some days, that's all I want from a pop star.

I can't begrudge Moore for singing songs she likes. If she wants to interpret the classics, so be it. At least she wants to grow up by singing instead of stripping. At least she's not putting more pop-porn into the world, which is more than I can say for her peer Britney Spears.