Published on Mar 2, 2001
Whenever there is a musician who makes a major impact in one
field or another, there is bound to be a flood of similar-minded
musicians jumping on that bandwagon in the hopes of catching even a
small percentage of that fame.
Listening to the self-titled debut from Monique Berry, one
thought came to mind: she’s trying very hard to be a less
controversial Tori Amos. All she needs is a stronger set of pipes,
a little more skill in the songwriting department and a major
increase in backing musicians.
The 10 songs that make up this disc all have very sparse
arrangements, sometimes relying on synthesized percussion to try
and provide a backbone to the music. Sorry, but this doesn’t work,
especially when the majority of the songs use no percussion at
all.
It’s not that the lack of a drummer is always a bad thing. The
centerpiece of this album, “Mounty Town,” is the kind of song that
would have failed if it had been orchestrated to the hilt. The
starkness in the arranging works in perfectly with the imagery
Berry creates in the song, and it demonstrates there just may be
weight to the belief that she’s in line for fame.
If only the bulk of
Monique Berry had this kind of power; were it so, this disc
would be unstoppable. Tracks like “Pick Me Up” and “Pretty Faces”
all have some kind of hubris (the former in the basic song
structure, the latter in the theme of racial unity – it’s been done
before, and done better). Similarly, much of the music on this one
just doesn’t hold up well on repeat listens, a criticism one could
also make of some of Amos’s work.
Perhaps the biggest shock is Berry’s voice – namely, how it
doesn’t quite have the range and power I expected it to. Songs like
“I Think I Do” and “Feel No More” don’t have the kind of emotional
oomph put into the vocal delivery that they so call for. Hurting
the situation is, as mentioned, the sparse arrangements. It’s
almost as if Berry cut many of these songs for publishing purposes,
just to have something committed to tape that said she indeed was
the author. Such a recording, I could have understood. Not trying
to push yourself to the limit on your debut effort is something I
do have a problem with.
There is no doubt that Berry could well be a force to be
reckoned with; it’s just that this disc doesn’t offer enough proof
to back those thoughts up. Berry is about to release a second disc;
let’s hope she internalized the lessons this disc should have
taught all around.