Published on Aug 22, 2002
The revolution is here.
Alright, alright, it’s not Mozart or even Elvis, just a very
listenable little pop-rock album from a fresh-faced young
singer-songwriter. But timing is everything, and
The Spirit Room is also riding the vanguard of the — praise
the Lord, it’s here — dumb-pop backlash. With the emergence of
precocious new artists like Michelle Branch, Vanessa Carlton and
Avril Lavigne, well-rounded talents capable of both writing and
singing their own surprisingly mature songs, it’s pretty much
official — Britney and the rest of you cleavage-flashing,
ass-shaking, image-is-everything popstars, your fifteen minutes of
fame are over.
There’s much more here, however, beyond the simple fact that
it’s a nice change of pace in 2002 to see a young woman employing
her musical talent rather than her shapely body to sell albums.
Michelle Branch was not the winner of a lip-sync contest for
midriff-baring mall rats. She arrived the old-fashioned way —
picked up a guitar at 14 and spent the next three years learning
how to play and then writing song after song after song. By the
time she was 17, she had put together enough solid material to
attract label attention.
It’s easy to see why. While the obvious first and second singles
– the driving, enormously catchy “Everywhere” and the more subdued
but equally urgent “All You Wanted” — are right up front, there
isn’t a clunker to be found on
The Spirit Room. Every track demonstrates both a
sophisticated grasp of pop-rock songwriting and a real gift for
conveying the emotions behind teenage experiences we can all
recognize. At seventeen, the highs were sky-high, the lows
impossibly low, and everything felt vital and charged with a
mysterious importance. Branch deftly captures it all — the
longing, the self-doubt, the passing obsessions generating a
sometimes overwhelming range and depth of feeling, all of it new
and exciting and a little bit scary.
In this effort it must be said that Branch is aided and abetted
considerably by producer/multi-instrumentalist/frequent co-writer
John Shanks. The assistance of a seasoned pro (he’s produced
Melissa Etheridge, Chris Isaak and Sheryl Crow, among others) gives
these tracks a fullness and smooth finish that’s frankly commercial
without compromising with the integrity of the songs. While it
would be intriguing to see how Branch might fare down the line with
a more organic sound, free of loops and multi-tracked backing
vocals, the approach here is a safe and smart one for an emerging
artist.
Highlights beyond the two very strong singles include “You Set
Me Free,” a ringing, unself-consciously joyous love song; “If Only
She Knew,” a frank and sometimes bitter love triangle set to a
funk-pop beat; and the latest single, the keening, desperately
sincere “Goodbye To You.” Closing strong, Branch and Shanks
gradually build the final ballad “A Drop In The Ocean” into a
swirling soundscape of passion — not the cheap T & A stuff
Britney and company are selling, but the real thing, the sensation
of being swept away by your feelings for another person to the
point where you nearly lose yourself in them. It’s a exhilirating,
ecstatic and sometimes frightening ride, and 17-year-old Michelle
Branch captures its essence astonishingly well.
Four words, Michelle: welcome to the revolution.