Hotel Paper

Michelle Branch is a singer songwriter in her early twenties, signed to the label that brought you Alanis Morissette and who has done more than brisk business in the States. If I were to stop here, I dare say that most of you could press on and write your own review of this, her second album.

For the most part you’d be right. Hotel Paper is dominated by the kind of big budget angst that we have heard several times too many since Jagged Little Pill became a global best seller. The problem lies, not necessarily with Branch herself, but with those behind the production desk. The human emotion that undoubtedly exists in her songs has been polished out of existence, the sort of thinking that leads, specifically, to the beautiful piano ballad ‘One Of These Days’ being destroyed by a naff programmed rhythm and generally, too much of the album sounding stupefyingly generic.

More’s the pity because Hotel Paper shows that Branch has the potential to be an arresting talent. At their best (‘Tuesday Morning’, the poppy ‘Breathe’ and ‘Where Are You Now’) her songs manage to find the life that the production is so keen to smother. Had she recorded the album in a small studio with a stripped down band, this could have been something astonishing… and would probably have sold a fraction of the amount.

As it is, Michelle Branch may as well ready herself for another stretch on the multi platinum treadmill.