Megan Mccauley - Better Than Blood
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CD Details
Artist: Megan MccauleyEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-10-23
Music Label: Wind-Up
Soundtracks:
- Migraine (explicit)
- Fragile
- Wrong Way Out
- Reverie
- Tap That
- Wonder
- I Realize
- See Through
- Come To Me
- Porcelain Doll
- I'll Pay You To Shoot Him (explicit)
Music reviews of Better Than Blood
Music Review: Potentially a Fantastic Debut, But...
Rating: 4 Stars
Fans of Megan McCauley have been waiting for her first full-length album since her double appearance on the Fantastic Four soundtrack after her stunning introduction on the Elektra soundtrack. With the release of a fine introductory EP and an internet-only music video for her song "Die For You," fans' impatience for her debut only increased. But was it worth the wait? Ultimately, yes. But with Better Than Blood, there is both good AND bad. I will start with the most glaringly obvious bad thing: the identity-crisis packaging and the misplaced song "Tap That."
If you've ever seen/heard McCauley's self-titled debut EP, you would be expecting more promotion than there was, and a harsher, more rocking package that would fit with nearly every track on her full album. What you get instead is a fairly cool cover/back cover that opens into album artwork desperately trying to pass Megan McCauley off not as a rocking singer/songwriter with an amazing vocal talent, but as an older, sexier version of Ashlee Simpson (think Liz Phair meets Avril Lavigne). The pink "Cheetah Girls"-sexy theme is carried throughout the artwork, with amazing tracks' lyrics overlaid with pictures of Megan that any fan could never possibly picture her wearing before this album, while the pink leopard-print CD cover makes you wonder when Wind-Up Records started to sponsor Avril Lavigne's The Best Damn Thing.
Once you've gotten over the drastic change in her look (the covers, both front and back, are actually good if you can ignore the pink siding), you notice that every song on this CD is at least some version of rock n' roll that is either harsh, dark, sarcastic, or self-deprecating, EXCEPT for "Tap That." This track is randomly thrown in between two wonderful ballads and seems to serve no purpose other than to justify the album art. While the song itself is actually catchy, fun, and shamelessly sexy, a real dance-type rock that is a throwback to Pink's now-immortal "U + Ur Hand," it was clearly NOT written by Megan McCauley and interrupts what had the potential to be a seamlessly fantastic debut.
With all of that aside, Better Than Blood is a wonderful nearly-hard-rock CD that is a good showcase of McCauley's beginnings that leaves room for bigger and better things in the future. "Migraine" is a great start-up with a catchy riff that draws you in as Megan comments on her annoyance with the status quo. It's followed by "Fragile," a harsh and self-trashing rocker that reveals her vocal talents and revealing a more sensitive side, yet somehow managing to maintain the caustic tone she has already established throughout.
"Wrong Way Out" is a more classic style than before, with sultry vocals and a smooth delivery. "Reverie" is a soft-rock type piano ballad that is both moody and emotive and draws influence from Evanescence. "Tap That" is randomly thrown in next for no apparent reason, and anyone who listens to it would agree that it is a great song and would have been much better if she'd simply left it to another album. It moves on to "Wonder," McCauley's first song, a wonderful, brooding acoustic-rock ballad that is a tribute to both her lung power and songwriting abilities.
"I Realize" and "See Through" are the transition into the overall darker tone of the end of the album, both of which being moody and introspective laments that border on the darker side of rock n' roll. "Come to Me" is an interesting blend of orchestra and light, almost pop/rock that is carried through with McCauley's wonderful singing.
It's the last two songs that are clear standouts on this album: "Porcelain Doll" was written solely by Megan McCauley and is simply McCauley on a grand piano. It is a beautiful, tragic lament that strays into dangerous territory by its mere ability to go wrong in all the wrong places, yet she pulls it off with both class and grace, reaching in and pulling on your heartstrings in a piano ballad the likes of which we haven't seen from Wind-Up since Evanescence's "My Immortal."
The album ends on a harsh, dark tone with "I'll Pay You to Shoot Him," the autobiographical recounting of McCauley's turbulent hate/hate relationship with her father. It is raw and rocking, a throwback to Courtney Love's grunge styling with Hole, and also somehow almost creepy to hear such a young woman singing almost cheerfully about offering to pay a police officer to "blow his brains out."
The final summary? Better Than Blood is an amazing debut that has fallen short of immortality because of an identity crisis that many fans will be able to overlook in light of the fact that not a song on this CD is unenjoyable. It is merely a sign that Megan McCauley is a name to watch as the sultry and powerfully talented siren will surely rise to great heights. Though there is some bad mixed with the good, McCauley still gets in your face without a care and asks: Can YOU do Better Than Blood?
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