New CD reviews: Daughtry, "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" soundtrack

Daughtry, "Baptized" (19/RCA)

When they write the next obituary for hard rock, certainly it will reference "Baptized," the album on which Daughtry went soft.

Of course, you could argue that Chris Daughtry, who used "American Idol" as a launch to stardom with the band that bears his surname, was never very hard to begin with. But the fervid response to him on TV demonstrated the continued potency of his brand of generalized post-grunge angst, delivered at maximum volume, but with an undercurrent of real feeling. He was a mook you could hug.

On Daughtry's fourth album, he's just a hugger, though. The music has been scaled down and made anonymous, owing more to the dull ambience of OneRepublic than to the guitar grinders and drum pummelers that Daughtry has shown affinity for in the past.

But even though Daughtry's music has softened, there's not much Daughtry can do with his voice, which has an appealing, powerful growl with no sultriness to it. It wants badly to roar but is given almost no opportunity to here apart from the savage "Traitor."

And so mostly, Daughtry is a caged animal on this album — "Waiting for Superman" is effective but tepid; "Wild Heart" tries to be flirty but can't quite manage. There's a flicker of country on the title track, which also employs the canny double entendres of Christian rock. Christian rock might be a soft landing place for him, a genre that is perhaps the last respite for a man who wants to sing with his full voice and not be ostracized for it.

JON CARAMANICA, New York Times

As a snapshot of this moment in pop music, the 12 songs here are emotional, love-obsessed and heavy on strum and rhythm. This collection is "inspired" by the film (not necessarily in it) and delivers a loving imaginary soundtrack to a generation of PG-13ers living for this weekend and looking for music to manifest their many confusions.

There are a lot of good makeout songs and just as many calls for courage. In "Lean," the National's Matt Berninger seduces with the line "I can see a fever's on the rise / I can see the waters in your eyes." Santigold's "Shooting Arrows at the Sky" brims with singalong invention while referencing Katniss Everdeen's weapon of choice. Christina Aguilera's new single, the tepid "We Remain," suggests that maybe we don't and is ultimately smushed by Patti Smith's sermon of bravery, "Capital Letter." Coldplay is here, too, but in a battle with Lorde's haunting version of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," Lorde would forever reign supreme.