Melissa Etheridge - Skin
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Melissa EtheridgeEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2001-07-10
Music Label: Island
Product features:
- TESTED
- Lover Please
- The Prison
- Walking On Water
- Down To One
- Goodnight
- It's Only Me
- I Want To Be In Love
- Please Forgive Me
- The Different
- Heal Me
Free Music Notes for Skin
Free Music Review: A Masterpiece, Plain And Simple
Hit: 5 Stars
I had just about given up on Melissa Etheridge. Granted, I still consider 1992's "NEVER ENOUGH" one of the best albums of the last decade, and her 1988 debut and it's follow-up "BRAVE & CRAZY" from a year later still hold up. However, with 1993's "YES I AM" Etheridge seemed to find a formula that she was willing to drive into the ground. Each successive release, from 1995's "YOUR LITTLE SECRET" to "BREAKDOWN" in 1999, seemed more and more like a going-thru-the-motions rehash of the previous release. That's why I was so glad to hear Etheridge wanted to shake things up with her seventh release. And, boy, has she ever! Offering up her most personal, creative release yet, Etheridge opens "SKIN" with "Lover Please", an in-your-face strummer that's augmented by tight beatbox percussion. However, this track is only a hint of things to come, with it's Joe Walshesque guitar effects and breathy bridge; you really know you're in for something new on the next track, the hushed, bare-bones "The Prison." Sort of like the female equivalent to Mellencamp and Springsteen, Etheridge makes it clear you can show just as much power with an acoustic guitar, harmonica and percussion that sounds like it's being played on the top of an oatmeal box as you can belting it out at the top of your lungs, guitar chords grinding. Now, I've got to admit.....while I think "Walking On Water" is pretty much a typical MLE track, one that would fit in on any of her previous releases, there's something almost.....mystical.....about the haunting backing vocals and flute-like synth that is causing me to like the track more and more with each new listen. On the flip side of the coin, a track that bowled me over right from the start is the powerful "Down To One." With it's Philly soul meets Carly Simon vibe and confessional lyrics, this is heartache at it's rawest.....one of the best "out on my own" songs in ages! At the CD's halfway point, we're treated to one of it's highlights, the gentle, yet loping, "Goodnight." All twangy guitar, twitchy percussion and chilling, sequenced backing vocals, the track offers some of the CD's best lyrics: "I washed the dishes/poured out the old wine/called a new friend for the second time/it's not bad this brand new life/it's clean and it's sharp like a brand new knife." Sheer perfection! Up next are two more great break-up songs, "It's Only Me" and the CD's first single, the universal "I Want To Be In Love." I dare anyone to state that, at no time in their life, not even for a moment, could they identify with this track.....EVERYONE has been there! Love is yearning and yearning is love, and the yearning in this song just bleeds out of the speakers. Mark my word.....when all is said and done, this will go down as one of Etheridge's Top Five singles of all time! Next, "Please Forgive Me" aches with it's delicacy. Very few of us are willing to jump right back in after our heart's been crushed; we want the wound to have at least begun to heal before the scab gets ripped off. "Please Forgive Me" captures this hesitation like very few songs ever have. Upon first listen "The Different" might seem a tad bit out of place, with it's twisted vocals and booming, propulsive beat. However, after a few listens, you'll realize that it TOTALLY belongs on "SKIN"; it radiates heat, passion, desire and rebirth. Closing the CD is "Heal Me." An uplifting ode to new beginnings, Etheridge seems to be saying that, no matter how bad it gets, it will always get better. Yes......there is a light at the end of the tunnel! That said, do I have any problems with "SKIN?" Well, yes, two minor ones. I'm still waiting for Etheridge to once again try the dance grooves that she so excellently mastered on "Must Be Crazy For Me", an excellent, albeit underrated, track from "NEVER ENOUGH." And, at just under 39 minutes, the CD seems way too short (but that might be a blessing in disguise; additional tracks might have resulted in a "filler" feeling, thus destroying the "concept" vibe that "SKIN" has going on). But these are minor quibbles at best. The fact of the matter is that, with "SKIN", Melissa Etheridge has laid her soul out for all to see.....and, in the process, given us the best album of her thirteen year career thus far.
Skin Poster
CD.PAPER CASEDuring the dark days of the singer's split from Julie Cypher, her companion of 12 years, Melissa Etheridge retreated to her home studio to pen songs lit from within with her searing pain and confusion. From those heart-wrenching sessions comes arguably Etheridge's finest work. She vents and rages and all but spits on her Tony Llama boots, giving these 10 songs a depth and grit that she only hinted at in her prior six albums. And those early albums were plenty gritty. But early tunes such as "Come to My Window," and "Yes I Am" don't approach the naked vulnerability heard here--even though the breakup was hinted at in "Stronger Than Me," on 1999's Breakdown. Skin peels back layers of Etheridge's pain and addresses her personal melodrama in such a compelling way that her despair is transmuted into true art, as she takes the listener through the stages of grief and recovery. And what a journey, beginning with the bristling "Lover Please" ("Didn't I love you right / Then tell me where are you going dressed to kill tonight? / Oh, this one's gonna hurt like hell") and ending with the stirring "Heal Me," which features background vocals by famous pals Laura Dern and Meg Ryan. That's almost all the help she has on the record; Etheridge plays almost all the instruments and penned all the songs. But, ultimately, Skin is the sound of one heart breaking. --Jaan Uhelszki
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