Stand Still, Look Pretty
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Music CD Cover
Edition: Music CDAudio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2006-05-23
Music Label: Maverick
Soundtracks:
- Leave The Pieces
- Way Back Home
- The Good Kind
- Tennessee
- My, Oh My
- Stand Still, Look Pretty
- Cigarettes
- Hard To Love You
- Lay Me Down
- One More Girl
- Rain
- Only Crazy People
Free Music Notes for Stand Still, Look Pretty
Free Music Review: My, oh my!
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is the Wreckers' debut album, but both members have been in the industry for a while. Jessica Harp, the lesser known half of the group, released an album, "Preface", in 2002 and is planning another solo release in 2007, while Michelle Branch released two platinum albums, "The Spirit Room" in 2001 and "Hotel Paper" in 2003, and had six top 40 hits. This album is a blend of Michelle's pop/rock sound and Jessica's folk/country sound and the result is a surprisingly strong and memorable effort. The album is doing better than I expected it to considering the lack of radio-friendly songs on it. Michelle stated Jessica was the lyricist, the story-teller, while she was better at finding melodies, but they did both things together.
The first single, "Leave The Pieces", is a mix of country and pop music and it's definitely the most radio-friendly song on there. The lyrics tell a story of another failed relationship without being overly sad, bitter or angry. ("It's alright, yeah I'll be fine/Don't worry 'bout this heart of mine") However, neither of the girls wrote this song. The chorus is catchy and is a fine example of how well Branch and Harp's voices blend extremely well. Both girls' vocals shine in the verses. Album highlight.
"Way Back Home" is more of a country song, complete with the sad but not depressing lyrics ("I never listened/Always forgetting/The way back home") that have something to do with nature. The song was written by Michelle and Jessica, and they both sing the whole song together. It is a breezy number that isn't as memorable as the first track and it gets lost amongst the other ones. It's the type of song you'll leave on if it comes on, but when you think of the album, it doesn't come to mind immediately.
If you were looking for the sad song about a love gone wrong, "The Good Kind" is just that. ("Do you know I cry?/Do I know I die?/Do you know I cry?/And it's not the good kind") It features beautiful vocals from both girls, but it's undeniable Jessica shines more than Michelle on this song. To be fair, Michelle doesn't sing nearly as much as Jessica. Once again, the two girls teamed up for the songwriting, creating a heartbreaking story. ("Do you wanna run away together?/I would say it was your best line ever/Too bad I fell for it") The melody is simple enough to let the emotionally sung lyrics shine. Album highlight.
For all the people who didn't know Jessica Harp before this album, this is her. "Tennessee" is a song that features Jessica on lead vocals all the way through and one of two songs that she wrote by herself. It reflects Jessica's storytelling folk music songwriting ("I never laid all my cards out/You just wanted to play/The king he waited on my doorsteps/While the joker and me went on our way") and her flawless vocals with a catchy chorus thrown in.
The second single "My, Oh My" is a straight up bluegrass song. I like it, but it's my least favorite song on the album. It is one of the only radio-friendly songs though. It has an upbeat feel and a catchy chorus, complete with lyrics about passing time. ("My, oh my/Look how the time flies/Look how the world changes/In a blink of an eye")
The title track is a slow, haunting ballad written by both girls but featuring Michelle's vocals only. It grabs you on first listen with Michelle's heartfelt plea to understand how she feels. ("I am slowly falling apart/I wish you'd take a walk in my shoes for a start/You might think it's easy being me/You just stand still, look pretty") Unlike other songs of this type that make you feel like there's nothing more important than the singer's problem, Michelle acknowledges other people's problems, perhaps because of the state of the world today, by saying "but people have problems that are worse than mine". Album highlight.
The other Jessica-only song on both vocals and songwriting, "Cigarettes", is a bit more country and upbeat than her previous one. It is a hopeful love song, in the one-day-I'll-find-the-one-for-me-but-for-now-I'm-okay kind of way. It's catchy, it's the type of song most people can relate to ("Somebody will see/All my worth but until then I'll do just fine on my own/With my cigarettes/And this old dirt road") but despite the chorus, she manages to avoid clichés in the verses.
"Hard To Love You" is a song Michelle wrote with John Leventhal and one she sings without Jessica. As the title suggests, Branch apologizes (without saying sorry) to a lover for caring about what "they" think. ("Took a mistake to really show me/Exactly what they are like/I've been wrong but I've been changing/I've been wondering what it means/Here I am alone and waiting/For you") It is respectably catchy and we get a glimpse of Michelle's solo material. Album highlight.
If I had to choose one favorite song on this album, which is hard (trust me), it would be "Lay Me Down". This song loses the country vibe for a more glossy sound, maybe with a slight taste of rock. It tells a story of being with someone you don't love, justifying it by saying "it's better than being alone". The way the lyrics, that you could call superficial and shallow but undeniably well-written, are sung is strikingly honest and you feel like it's happening to you right now. It was written by the girls and Greg Wells, who worked with Michelle on "Hotel Paper". ("I don't mind/Killing time/As long as I can't see it in your eyes") One of my favorite lines is "I'm sorry, lay me down", but it only means so much without the rest of the song. Album highlight.
"One More Girl" is the second song the girls didn't write. It's a country vocal ballad featuring Jessica on lead vocals and Michelle doing an amazing job on background vocals. The chorus sees the two voices blend again and better than on any song. The lyrics are sad and a bit too true. ("It's one more day that you/Don't find true love/Because you don't know/What it means") It's a slow, long ballad and when it's over, it still lingers on (which, I'm guessing, was the effect they were looking for). "You don't know what you want/But at this moment it could be me". Album highlight.
Screw Jessica, "Rain" is all about Michelle. She wrote it and sings it on her own and just for these three minutes, it sounds like it's her album. Her pop/rock sound with the catchy hooks and classic Michelle Branch lyrics, although maybe a bit more focused on being "catchy" than "deep", are found on this song. She sings about someone taking her for granted and she can't do anything about it. ("I must have messed up/Cause it's all I hear you say") This should be a single, but it won't ever become one due to the fact Jessica didn't touch this song. Album highlight.
The last song is the "double-murder song", as they described it. The country ballad "Crazy People" is a song they wrote together and recorded all the way through without stopping. They had to do it many times because they laughed every time, though. They do it even on the album version. Once again, the blend of the voices shines and, even though it's been present through the album, it's still surprising. "Only crazy people fall in love with me" is a line that summarizes the lyrics pretty well, although leaving out the two stories (and murders...) in the verses. The album ends with their laughter, which is appropriate after creating this 5 star-worthy album.
I strongly reccomend this album if you like acoustic pop because it's a nice cross between catchy and deep, and it's not too country. If you're a fan of either of the two singers, or both like I was before hearing it, then don't even hesitate. It's a fantastic album.
Stand Still, Look Pretty Poster
The Wreckers are about creation, not destruction. Bringing together two young, fearless female singersongwriter-acoustic guitarists?Grammy®-winning, platinum-selling Michelle Branch and collaborator Jessica Harp?The Wreckers? debut album, Stand Still, Look Pretty, blends Branch?s pop-rock sensibility with Harp?s country-folk style. Edgy yet rootsy, on Stand Still, Look Pretty, The Wreckers have a ball.The Wreckers are Grammy-winning songstress Michelle Branch and friend/journeywoman Nashville singer-songwriter Jessica Harp, a team whose solid craftsmanship and soaring, airtight harmonies often lift their hook-smart contemporary country stylings above what's too often mere fizzy, pop-crossover formula. They may have entered the public consciousness via the wide exposure of "Good Kind" on the primetime soap opera One Tree Hill, but the bracing, back-porch charms of the single "Leave the Pieces" should find them a following well beyond that series' teen audience. The reflective title track, gritty folk charms of "Tennessee" and giddy crowd-pleaser "My, Oh My" are suffused with a lyrical maturity that's the perfect counterpoint to the duo's sturdy musical constructs. Solid songs all, delivered with a muscular vocal conviction that does considerably more than merely sell them. --Jerry McCulley
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