Kate Hudson Glorious LP

Kate Hudson's not sure what took her so long, especially with all the music whirling inside her. That hunger for musical expression from the woman who embodied the rocker's muse in Almost Famous runs deeper. "I always felt connected to music. It was my outlet."

Natural and easy, there's both self-examination and celebration flowing through her songs. She understands the phases of modern music in a way that's fluid, but defined, honest, yet willing to leave it all at the door in the name of love.

...[Hudson's] passionate, full-throated vocals - raspy without seeming ragged, powerful yet controlled - are the focal point throughout the record. Unsurprisingly for an actress who became a star playing Penny Laine, the chief "Band Aid" in Cameron Crowe's album rock epic Almost Famous, Hudson is firmly rooted in classic rock, displaying clear debts to such '70s titans as Linda Ronstadt and Stevie Nicks. The trick Hudson pulls off on Glorious is that her classicism never seems staid: it's bright, lively, fresh and fun, tuneful, and knowing without succumbing to rote, respectful tropes of traditionalism.