Skin

by

Melissa Etheridge

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Here is another artist whose music I never was a fan of, Melissa Etheridge. Radio overkill on her singles and the constant labelling by critics really turned me off to Melissa's music to be painfully honest. What changed my mind? I just started reading her book after I read a segment of it in Rolling Stone and from there my interest in Melissa Etheridge and her new album "Skin" snowballed from there. After hearing "I Want to Be In Love" on the radio, that is all that convinced me 100% completely to buy her new album when it would come out.

After having listened to "Skin" three times today, I find myself amazed by what I have heard on this cd. The lyrics delves deep into Melissa's emotions as she was going through her painful breakful with her partner. I love how songs like "The Prison" and "Please Forgive Me" captured Melissa's emotions perfectly. I heard a yearning for true love in Melissa's voice in "I Want to Be In Love", and the song makes me want her to be in love again. Angst and sorrow is written all over "Lover Please" and "Down to One", and so well written too.

I love "Skin". Next to Lucinda Williams' "Essence" and Dar Williams' "The Green World", "Skin" is one of the best introspective albums I have heard in years. "Skin" may be short but it leaves the listener breathless and captivated, and wanting more. Truly a wonderful piece of art.

I love Melissa's music, but her self-titled album remains the high point of her career. Skin is a much more polished, studio-perfect outing; her voice packaged and cleaned up. Breakdown brought a new maturity and a welcomed relief from the catchy, commercial albums of recent years. Melissa is at her best when the noisy music is scaled back ("2001" and "I Could Have Been You", the most blaring examples) and her trademark, powerhouse voice can carry the song, unadulterated.

I have found her writing at times to be superb, on songs "You Can Sleep While I Drive", "Chrome Plated Heart", "The Boy Feels Strange", "Don't You Need" and "Similiar Features" being the most notable, with the latter containing some of her most inspired lyrics: "dancing with the wall made you bitter sweet . . . now the paint's still wet in your do it by number dream."

Although, I can't help but notice familiar, rehashed patterns in her writing as well, with many songs referencing bleeding, tearing, anything "precious", dancing, coffee . . . and who can ignore the angels, a constant and tiresome fixture. (On Skin an angel's fallen from the sky). She also, strangely, holds an odd fascination with the kitchen. Occasionally one song echos another, "Lover Please" and "I'm the Only One" the most recent and noticable examples.

"The Different" is the best song on Skin with lyrics "You've never been to the moon but don't you want to go, under the sea in the volcano" sounding so fresh because it's uncharted material for Melissa.

I'd like to hear less-rehearsed, less radio-friendly songs, more complicated lyrics, layered in new language, and for the obvious insights to vanish with the angels.