Be Not Nobody

Former ballerina turned singer-songwriter, 21-year-old Vanessa Carlton certainly has the looks and the voice for the stardom she seems destined for, particularly in her native US. (She’s a classically trained pianist to boot, something we’re not allowed to forget on virtually every waking second of her debut). But rather than fashion her undoubted talents into something genuinely original she has chosen the now well-trodden path of the angst-ridden, overwrought fem-rocker. Think Alanis Morrissette at her most melodramatic or a less restrained Tori Amos and you’re nearly there. She even has that vocal affectation common to the genre – kind of a hiccupy, breathless rush to pack in as many words into the song as possible.

That said, she packs a pretty powerful punch on numbers like her recent US smash ‘A Thousand Miles’ and the funky, syncopated grooves of ‘Prince’. She comes across much more naturally on ballads like the cutesy ‘Pretty Baby’ and the lushly textured ‘Paradise’ with its soaring strings and piano arrangement. One song, ‘Unsung’, actually sounds remarkably like An Emotional Fish’s classic ‘Celebrate’, especially in the opening verse. ‘Wanted’, on the other hand, sees her almost singing in tongues – the song ending in a bout of primal screaming which is hard to take at the best of times.

A surprising version of The Rolling Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’ has her sounding like Britney doing Patti Smith, but all things considered it’s probably the best thing here though when she sings the line “I look inside myself and see my heart is black,” you really do believe her!

The sleeve notes contain the now mandatory, if cringeworthy stuff about how recording the album has been “an incredible journey and adventure filled with love which has helped me grow as an artist and as a woman.” Yeah right!