Published on Dec 27, 1999
As the year winds down here at the Pierce Memorial Archives, I’m
left sitting in front of a pile of relatively new releases that I
just haven’t gotten to review yet. I guess if I had the luxury of
quitting my real job, I’d have more time to devote to getting
through the ever-growing pile – as well as getting to all those
damned interviews I have yet to transcribe.
One of these discs which has been patiently waiting for me to
give it a spin is
Broken Things, the latest release from country/folk
chanteuse Julie Miller. If you want to try and pigeon-hole her into
one clear-cut category – well, go right ahead. I’ll wait.
Go ahead and try to explain to yourself how Miller can make the
jump from the poppiness of “Ride The Wind To Me” to the soft
crooning ballad of “I Know Why The River Runs” – changes one right
after the other, hopping over the lines of genre like a Mexican
jumping bean.
Not so easy to classify her, is it? Brother, don’t I know it.
Even after giving
Broken Things a few listens, I still don’t know if
country/folk is the right label to stick on her. All I do know is
that, with rare exception, Miller shines on this disc and keeps you
interested in every note she has to sing.
Granted, there are a few moments of weakness, where it sounds
like Miller is trying to cover too much musical ground in one
album. “I Need You” just is not the kind of vehicle that is
perfectly suited for Miller’s vocal style, and it shows. But hold
on – she shows that she’s perfectly able to tackle a more rock-like
vein on “Strange Lover,” a track that has more twists than a
rollercoaster in the summer. So maybe this was just an isolated
flaw on “I Need You”.
There is enough of a twang in Miller’s style to justify calling
some of her stylings country, though this is hardly die-cut country
music. If anything, Miller uses the power of the ballads to
showcase her vocals the best. Tracks like “I Know Why The River
Runs,” “I Still Cry” and “Maggie” all will make you sit up and take
notice of Miller, as well as make you wonder how much longer it
will be before her star really begins to rise in the world of
adult-contemporary. (Hey, if Shania Twain, Trisha Yearwood and
Faith Hill can all cross over, why can’t Miller, who keeps roots in
all the different musical tributaries?)
What I like most about
Broken Things is that it’s an album that never seems to get
old or stale-sounding. There are enough musical shifts that even
after multiple listenings, you’ll find yourself caught off-guard by
the direction that Miller takes. Admittedly, such shifts have sunk
more popular artists who tried to bite off more than they could
chew. But that’s where Miller has the advantage; she knows just
when to make the switch, and how extreme to take it without sending
the listener into shock.
Broken Things is the kind of album you might not give first
thought to purchasing while walking down the aisles of Borders –
but once you sit down and give it a fighting chance, you’ll wonder
how you lived without such a disc for so long.