Melissa Etheridge - Fearless Love
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CD Details
Artist: Melissa EtheridgeEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2010-04-27
Music Label: Island
Soundtracks:
- Fearless Love
- The Wanting Of You
- Company
- Miss California
- Drag Me Away
- Indiana
- Nervous
- Heaven On Earth
- We Are The Ones
- Only Love
- To Be Loved
- Gently We Row
Music reviews of Fearless Love
Music Review: There's Nothing FEARLESS About This Generic LOVE!
Rating: 3 Stars
I'm obviously in the minority by saying this, but there's something amiss with Melissa Etheridge and her career. Somewhere in the last decade...starting with 1999's BREAKDOWN...the spark just kind of went out and things just kind of went on automatic pilot. In fact, only 2004's LUCKY has had any kind of "WOW!" factor for me. I don't know if it's motherhood, or beating cancer, or middle age, or winning an Oscar, or....whatever....but Etheridge has lost her edge. And when I say edge, I mean daring and nerve, that desire to try something new. It's as if all of her rough corners have been sanded smooth.
And this is sad on a number of levels. Edgy can often merge into thoughtful and deep, but on the flip side, thoughtful and deep can also slip into self-absorbed and, worse yet, whiny. It's also sad to see Island let this amazing talent just slip away...."Time for another Etheridge album? O.K., but don't let it go over budget, and don't bother working the first single past the first three or four weeks...max. After that? Forget about it!!" These are dark times indeed for Melissa Etheridge.
A prime example is the first single, the upbeat title track. "Fearless Love" is a nice enough song, but it's nothing we haven't heard from Etheridge before. And when she sings "If I could only change", you can't help but think "Well, if you really want to...why don't you?? Shake things up, dang it!" In both your life AND your music!!
Lyrically, "The Wanting Of You" is one of the best songs on FEARLESS LOVE, a real story/song that allows Etheridge to get outside of her own head (and heart). However, the bland, unoriginal rock arrangement causes the powerful words to get lost in all the crash-boom-bang. A beautiful song that ends up an O.K. "could have been!"
"Company" is one of the songs that just kind of rubs me the wrong way...without sounding cold, what is she whining about? A great career, four kids who love her, a legion of adoring fans, victory over cancer...are we really expected to believe she's the rock cliche who goes home alone, who's so miserable the twenty-two hours she's off the stage? And if that's true...do something about it! This kind of dour moping is getting old!
Things rebound nicely with the biting, thought-provoking "Miss California." Etheridge's lead vocal is just this side of a snarl, while the instrumentation is forceful and fresh. Add in lyrics that are pointed but never preachy ("You try to shove me in your closet/With your skulls and your bones"), and you have a thoughtful, intelligent latter-day protest song.
On the flip side of the coin is the gorgeous mid-tempo "Drag Me Away." Heartfelt and from the core of her being, Etheridge's lead vocal just soars. The sweeping arrangement just adds to the track's majestic nature. And when she sings "I will not be a hostage/To my own disease", well, you just want to stand up and cheer! Definitely one of FL's finest moments!
Even though it's arrangement is quite different, there's something about "Indiana" that makes you think you just heard it with "The Wanting Of You." This sort of song has certainly been, in one form or another, on every one of the last three or four Etheridge albums...small town girl comes to the big city, drawn to the lights and fame, makes it (or doesn't), comes to a realizatioin.....Move along, Melissa, just move along!
Even the album's best cut, the Stones-esque "Nervous" could have been SO much better. Mind you, it's ALMOST there, but things would have been even stronger with a little more jangle to the guitars, a little more punch to the percussion and some killer backing vocals (this is where Joss Stone could have REALLY shined!!). Instead, it ends up resorting to just a run of the mill wall of sound. So close...yet so far!
"Heaven On Earth" has an ethereal, shimmering quality to it that's absolutely mesmerizing. The arrangement could do without the blistering guitar solo ~ sticking with the gentle acoustic/folk vibe would have been just fine! ~ but Etheridge's vocal is sincere and honest, allowing the track to be counted as one of FEARLESS LOVE's best.
I also really like "We Are The Ones", a middle Eastern-flavored number that is both thought-provoking and fun. A strong lead vocal and clever little touches (the percussive moments, the spoken word loops) all add up to a major plus. The only real minus? Guest vocalist Stone is totally wasted (Now THAT would have been a killer duet!!).
"Only Love" is a hushed ballad that also works. Etheridge's lead vocal just shines, that "steel fist in a satin glove" quality completely shining thru. Kudos also to 75% of the arrangement....it just flows along at a nice, even pace (The vocal histrionics in the middle and near the end of the song, however, are totally unnecessary).
Not nearly as good is the bloated, cliched "To Be Loved." Once again, Etheridge delivers a simpering lead vocal, wrapped around a stilted, dull arena-rock arrangement. Toss in silly lyrics about "the race of rats", "eternal blame", and "wanting to be loved", and you have the disc's absolute low point.
Things wind up on a much tighter note..."Gently We Row" is Etheridge at her most real..unguarded, open, not trying to prove or be anything. Full of poetic lyrics ("I looked into my mother's eyes/I said tell me what I should believe/She drew me a room with a light/And said just turn it off when you leave"), this is just lovely, plain and simple.
In closing, I just want to say...FEARLESS LOVE isn't a bad album (in fact, it's actually a 3.5 star album, but after rounding up for THE AWAKENING, I felt I had to round down this time around). I just want to be wowed by Melissa Etheridge again, like I was the first time I heard, say, "Bring Me Some Water" or "Must Be Crazy For Me." As I stated in my review for THE AWAKENING, she's just painting with select colors right now...I want the whole rainbow!
I don't now what it's going to take ~ a new label, a producer WAY outside her comfort zone (say, Rick Rubin, Rob Cavallo, Matt Serletic or Lindsey Buckingham), or some new writing partners (maybe Rob Thomas, Sheryl Crow or Aimee Mann) ~ but until then, Melissa Etheridge will be anything but "FEARLESS."
Description of Fearless Love
The single and album were produced by John Shanks, whose first album production was Etheridge's 1999 Breakdown. Since that collaboration he has risen to the top ranks of rock and pop producers with credits including Sheryl Crow, Alanis Morissette and Bon Jovi, winning the 2005 Producer of the Year Grammy Award. "Fearless Love" spotlights the album's solid rock foundation with the core band of Etheridge on acoustic guitar, Shanks providing imaginative lead guitar, color-filled keyboards from Jamie Muhoberac and the dynamic anchor of bassist Sean Hurley and drummer Victor Indrizzo.Fearless Love, her triumphant tenth album, expands on the multiple strengths that have made Etheridge one of the most beloved figures in modern rock. It follows her revealing 2007 set The Awakening with a rousing tone at once tough and tender, as only Etheridge can be. It's that force of presence that has earned her, among other accolades, the 2007 Academy Award for best original song ("I Need to Wake Up" from the documentary An Inconvenient Truth) and two Grammy Awards.
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