Melissa Ferrick - Skinnier Faster Live at the B.P.C.

List Price: $21.99
Our Price: $7.33
You Save: $14.66 (67%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Music CD
See more CD details

CD Details

Music reviews of Skinnier Faster Live at the B.P.C.

Music Review: Melani Ferrfranco
Rating: 2 Stars

Melissa Ferrick is nothing but the lesbian, still-playing-slash-and-burn-guitar alternative to the now softly-strumming, married Ani DiFranco. In fact, I'd wager that she counts her her main demograph as those yearning for the strappy, percussive, "underground" DiFranco of yesteryear. Instead of putting her mind to something really useful like, oh, building a time machine(so DiFranco's old fans could see her the way they want her), Ferrick takes it upon herself to rehash what DiFracno was doing six or seven years ago.

This sometimes blatant sound-piggybacking is never more apparent than on her double live CD, Skinnier.Faster. From the snarling vocals, to the nonsense yelps, to the aforementioned guitar-as-weapon approach, to the spacey stage banter (all included in spades on Skinnier), Ferrick knows the DiFranco routine inside and out. It's only a matter of time before she starts sporting day-glo dreadlocs.

If the notion of an Ani DiFranco rip-off is unsettling, consider how much more disturbing it is that Ferrick exhibits about half the personality and a third of the intelligence of DiFranco. Aside from a handful of interesting tunes, and maybe five clever turns of lyrical phrase during Skinnier's 90+ minute running time, Ferrick's songwriting is generally innocuous and unmemorable at best. At worst, it's as trite as her lovelorn, insight-free lyrics. When Ferrick's yelps are usurped by soulless scat singing, she's downright unbearable.

To Ferrick's merit, though, she also replicates DiFranco's admirable spunk and devotion; she spends at least two thirds of any given year touring and sings with unquestionable sincerity. It's this last factor alone that makes Ferrick listenable, if not slightly likeable. It's obviously not enough to make her sound completely (or even more than slightly) valid, but it's certainly better than nothing.

Ferrick never shakes her overall aura of cheapness on Skinner.Faster. Because DiFranco did it first, and because she did it better, Ferrick ultimately sounds second-rate and insignifcant. She doesn't seem to care though; her newly formed, self-run record label's name (Right On Records) is more than eerily similar to DiFranco's Righteous Babe Records. Ferrick's giving herself an undeserved pat on the back by with such a smarmy title, though; she's anything but right-on.

Description of Skinnier Faster Live at the B.P.C.

Alternative Rock CDs

• Music > Styles
• Classic Rock
• Folk
• Pop
• Rock