Coming from the same, breezy vein as John Mayer, Michelle Branch
\nand Sheryl Crow’s spunkiest works, Viki Nova arrived on the scene
\nin 2001 in true breakout fashion: she talked her way into opening
\nfor The Barenaked Ladies and Train during a music festival.<\/p>\n
Her 2003 release,
\nCatch Me if You Can!<\/i> may be on a small label (Think For
\nYourself Records), but close your eyes and lean back and you would
\nswear the album would feel right at home on Universal or Sony
\nrecords. Nova’s ear for a poppy hook and her songwriting skills
\nmake
\nCatch Me if You Can!<\/i> seem like a guilty pleasure listen at
\none moment, and a genuine stab at creating a great album the next
\nmoment.<\/p>\n
The topics are your typical singer-songwriter foray: general
\nlistlessness (“Nothing Changes”), getting involved with the wrong
\nperson (“Addicted”) and empowerment (“I’m Yours”). Sometimes, she
\ncan nail a mood down in one line (“Who knew I needed you to be my
\nbest?” she sings in “Addicted”), and then drop the tired “moth to a
\nflame” metaphor in another song.<\/p>\n
Uneven songwriting isn’t Nova’s only problem. Too often, she
\ntries too hard to emulate songwriters of alterna-past. One song,
\nshe seems to be trying to re-create Gwen Stefani’s manic spirit,
\nanother she tries in earnest to replicate Sheryl Crow’s countrified
\nbohemian quality. All of these artists are great, but a lot of
\nCatch Me if You Can! sounds like background music at a really good
\ncoffee house.<\/p>\n
Still, it’s a really, really good coffee house. I’ll still take
\nthis album over Liz Phair’s latest. And if you turn off your inner
\ncritic, it’s hard not to enjoy ear candy like “Too Much” and “At
\nAll Costs.” Perhaps the best compliment I can give to
\nCatch Me If You Can!<\/i> is that after listening to it once and
\nputting it away for about two weeks, I still had the leadoff track
\nbuzzing through my head.<\/p>\n
So who is Viki Nova? Is she a great songwriter willing to be
\nsurrounded by great production like Gwen Stefani? Is she a
\nstraight-up rocker or will she do a radical departure and go
\nhardcore on her next release?
\nCatch Me if You Can!<\/i> doesn’t offer much in terms of answers.
\nIt’s good enough to make you curious of her next move. Hopefully
\nwith the right producer and songwriting risks, Nova can eventually
\nreach the same level as her influences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6987],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37881","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-viki-nova","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37881","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37881"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}