(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Born in Kansas, trained at the prestigious Berklee School of Music, and transplanted to Los Angeles at the age of twenty-one (in 1982), Melissa Etheridge served a long apprenticeship before breaking through in the lesbian clubs of Las Vegas. Elevating Joan Armatrading and Janis Joplin to the status of muses, Etheridge debuted with a self-titled album, Melissa Etheridge (Island, 1988), far more furious and spectacular than those of the other singer-songwriters of her generation. A passionate voice, endowed with the intensity of a seasoned rhythm-and-blues singer, drove the barrages of a semi-electric band. The erotic yearnings of Like The Way I Do, Chrome Plated Heart, and Similar Features were cloaked by the throbbing profane gospel of Bring Me Some Water, destined to remain her masterpiece.
The second album, Brave And Crazy (Island, 1990), refines the love song (the classic Used To Love To Dance and especially You Can Sleep While I Drive) in a more nostalgic register, but also reduces the emotional impact of harangues such as No Souvenirs and Angels.
Never Enough (Island, 1992) contains tracks that are just as intense but also just as tedious, such as Ain't It Heavy, It's For You, Letting Go, and 2001. Must Be Crazy For Me and Meet Me In The Back use complex rhythms, but the melodies are predictable.
Even less original, Yes I Am (Island, 1993) juxtaposes her trademark All American Girl and lines up the usual bravado, inviting comparisons with Bruce Springsteen. This is nonetheless the album that launches her on an international scale, thanks to the hits I'm The Only One and Come To My Window.
Excessively scattered on Your Little Secret (Island, 1995), Etheridge seems stubbornly intent on repeating the success of the previous album with oversized songs such as the title track. At the end of the record she declares This War Is Over, perhaps referring to the anger that once gnawed at her and that she no longer feels. If I Wanted To, Your Little Secret, I Want to Come Over, and Nowhere to Go were the singles of the year.
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Angels Would Fall is not enough to redeem her softest, most laid-back
album ever, Breakdown (Island, 1999).
The songs on
Skin (Island, 2001)
seem to record a manic depression or existential crisis. They
are howls of loneliness and sadness that hardly match the furor and passion
of her early recordings.
Lucky (Island, 2004) is a reply to her own previous album: a sunny
bouncy extroverted confession of love (Lucky, Breathe,
If You Want To, Come On Out Tonight).
The Awakening (2007) reflected on her life's experience
(Map of the Stars, the lengthy An Unexpected Rain, the closer
What Happens Tomorrow) but musically was a retreat to adult (i.e.,
soporific) folk-rock.
Fearless Love (2010) was just embarrassing.
