Melissa Etheridge, An Overview of Her Music
Category: Music
I like Jadem6's interest in reviewing more music here on Audiogon, and in that spirit, I offer an overview of Melissa Etheridge's music. I don't think M.E. has been discussed in the Forum before. All of M.E.s CDs are on the Island label and are very well recorded.
Melissa Etheridge is an excellent singer-songwriter with seven CDs recorded to date. Her genre is pretty much Rock and Rock ballads, and she writes virtually all her own music. M.E.'s first CD was self titled and released 1988. Favorite songs are "Precious Pain", it has heartbreaking lyrics. "The Late September Dogs" is great musically, and "Bring Me Some Water" is hard driving R&R.
Her next two CDs, "Brave and Crazy", 1989, and "Never Enough", 1992 were just as good as the first. "Royal Station 4/16" is a "train song" that starts slow and builds to a screaming climax, and the title song "Brave and Crazy" is also excellent. On "Never Enough", "Ain't it Heavy", "2001", and "Keep it Precious" are great songwriting and "2001" has some neat rhythm.
In 1993, "Yes I Am" was M.E.s "coming out of the closet" as being a lesbian, CD. There is some tremendous song writing here "Silent Legacy" is a song about coming of age that we can all identify with-- and it contains a primal scream that will test your stereo system. "Talking to My Angel" is another favorite, but there are no weak tracks on this CD.
"Your Little Secret", released 1995, has 3-4 weak songs, but "Shriner's Park"-- sort of about making out as a teenager is grabbing, but the song that really makes this CD for me is "This War is Over"; it's about any soldier coming home following a war, and not necessarily alive. She does it well.
M.E.s last two CDs, "Breakdown", released 1999, and "Skin", just released 2001, show a more mature singer, and some of the energy and raw, dynamic edge of her earlier work has diminished, but she makes up for that with maturity in her lyrics and still good, but less energetic band work. On "Skin", track #9 is over-processed, but the other tracks are generally excellent.
This is just an overview of M.E.s music, and my opinion(s) of course. I recommend all of M.E.s CDs but the first two would be a good introduction. Are there others out there that appreciate M.E. music? Cheers. Craig.
