On most songs it's hard to tell where the vocoder and production tricks end and Hogan's own voice begins. This is bad, since Hogan has a perfectly fine pop music voice. But she lets the folks behind the mixing board overpower her to a fault.
Hogan comes out swinging on "Dear Mom." "I love you. But you gotta change," Brooke says in heartfelt fashion before launching into a talk-rap-sing tirade. It might have been a poignant touching track, and obviously self-referential given her own battles with mother Linda, but there's so much dirty south "crunk" production going on it quickly dissolves into a mess of Nintendo-esque tones and synthesizer stabs.
The best songs here are the dance club-paced "Handcuffed" and "Strip." The faster tempo takes Hogan away from the hackneyed hip-hop realm and into a space where her voice can soar and production tricks don't sound so out of place.
CHECK OUT THIS TRACK: Miami rapper Stack$ helps out Hogan on "Falling," a smooth songs track with a nice hook. Stack$ is the best of the featured artists on "The Redemption," which includes cameos from Urban Mystic and Flo Rida.
