How fleeting does the alternative music scene seem to be today?
\nWhen I read the press release for Australian singer Merril
\nBainbridge’s latest album
\nBetween The Days<\/i>, I couldn’t remember what her first hit
\n“Mouth” sounded like. My usual reference sites that have short
\nsound clips? No help.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, flying blind when listening to an artist you’re not
\nfamiliar with is a dangerous thing. However, in the case of
\nBainbridge, it meant going into the album without any preconceived
\nnotions. A good thing, too, for
\nBetween The Days<\/i> is an album that dares you to accept it in
\nall its pop glory, a task that is rather easy to do.<\/p>\n
Bainbridge’s vocals sound a little bit like Donna Lewis, though
\nI think that Bainbridge has more range. The first single off the
\nalbum, “Lonely,” quickly establishes Bainbridge as a more than
\ncapable artist; the vocal harmonies that are weaved into the rhythm
\nof this song are hooks that capture you from the get-go. After
\nrepeated listens to this disc, I have yet to get tired of that
\nsong.<\/p>\n
But Bainbridge quickly demonstrates that there’s more to her
\nthan just a pretty voice. Some songs, like “Walk On Fire” and “When
\nYou Call My Name,” have more of an edge to them – throwing just
\nenough spice into the mix to keep things interesting. “Walk On
\nFire” is a track that I could see as the next single… easy.<\/p>\n
What carries Bainbridge from the softer, more introspective
\nworks like the title track to the slightly more raucous numbers is
\nher voice. The old cliche is that a good singer could sing the
\nphone book and keep you interested. I wouldn’t go that far, but
\nBainbridge does demonstrate early and often that she has a solid
\nset of pipes, and knows how to use them.<\/p>\n
Some of the songs on
\nBetween The Days<\/i> get a little too wrapped up in themselves
\nfor me (“Love And Terror,” “Blindfolded”), but for the few weaker
\ntracks on the album, there are numerous others ready to pick up the
\nslack (“Big Machine,” “Goodbye To Day”).<\/p>\n
In fact, the biggest complaint that I could have with
\nBetween The Days<\/i> is a common complaint I have with good
\nalbums – it’s too short! The ten songs on this one clock in at
\naround 45 minutes – and Bainbridge is the kind of artist who I
\ncould have listened to much longer.<\/p>\n
I still don’t remember what “Mouth” sounds like, but if it’s
\nanywhere as good as the material on
\nBetween The Days<\/i>, then I’ll be willing to pick up
\nBainbridge’s first album. Adult contemporary radio should fall over
\nthemselves rushing to get this album on the air. Leave your
\npreconceived notions at the door, and accept
\nBetween The Days<\/i> for what it is – a very good second
\neffort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5978],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-35998","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-merril-bainbridge","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35998"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35998"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}