Wildest Dreams

Wildest Dreams

<I>Wildest Dreams</I> is John Berry's first album since 1996's <I>Faces</I>, which failed to go gold despite a No. 1 country single, "She's Taken a Shine." He's got a new label, Lyric Street, and a new producer, Mark Spiro, best known for his work with Lila McCann. Fortunately, Berry's soaring tenor voice is intact. Unfortunately, his choice of material still has more in common with Christopher Cross and Phil Collins (whose "You'll Be in My Heart" receives a typically schmaltzy cover here) than with anything identifiable as country music. A tender song like "Where Would I Be" would fit right in on soft-pop or contemporary-Christian radio. But the country single "Power Windows" attempts to dress up a hopelessly contrived lyric with weightless '70s rock guitars. <I>--Rick Mitchell</I>