Led by the Juliette Lewis starring music video, Melissa Etheridge exploded on the 90's scene with her hit, Come To My Window from her 1993 album, Yes I Am. As such, one would be forgiven to think she was an all-new act of the decade. The facts, however, would be that leading up to this breakthrough, she actually had released three albums already.
Etheridge got her breakthrough through one of the wives who came to see her with her soccer team. The woman was married to Bill Leopold, a music manager at the time, who was able to secure her a contract with Island Records. However, upon turning over the tracks for what would have been her debut, the label rejected them, calling them too polished. She'd return to the studio, and over a grueling four days, hammer out the raw tracks that would be released on her 1988 self-titled debut. It would become an underground success, led mostly by the single, Bring Me Some Water, with the song being nominated for a Grammy. The album would also peak at number twenty-two on the Billboard 200.
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I will say up front that expectations for me were low, and I didn't know what exactly to expect. In the 90's, I was a fan of her aforementioned hit and even picked up the CD out of a dollar bin several years back. However, I never actively looked for anything else from her.
During one of my many excisions to the used CD shop, it actually surprised me to find her debut album, but to learn at that time that it was indeed from the 80's. Digging a little further yielded her 1989 follow-up, Brave And Crazy. Even better, both were priced at a mere ninety-nine cents each.
She's kind of like a female version of Jon Bon Jovi. A raspy, yet powerful voice which can push you to the back of a room when the need calls for it. This is all smoothly layered out by solid rock music, typically led by an acoustic guitar, but backed by a full band.
While it initially starts out solid, even having a standout track, Like The Way I Do, by the halfway point it did get a bit boring, and from there, it only further went downhill. I kept waiting on Etheridge's own Livin' On A Prayer, or Raise Your Hands, you know, something big, with a lot of energy, but nothing ever reached that point. It was kind of disappointing, because the potential was there. Fortunately, the album does end on a high note with I Want You.
Though I will, this whole experience doesn't necessarily excite me to jump into her next album. Reading that it delivers more of the same even less intrigues me. If nothing else, I'm moving forward to check it off the list.
Let this be a lesson to you, kids. Just because you're a fan of 80's music doesn't mean you need to buy everything and anything from the era. There's going to be a whole lot of hits and misses, and the misses are going to be a real downer.
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