{"id":38019,"date":"2004-07-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2004-07-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/white-turns-blue\/"},"modified":"2004-07-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2004-07-19T00:00:00","slug":"white-turns-blue","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/white-turns-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"White Turns Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve written here before about expectations and how they can
\nwarp perceptions and create surprise where maybe there shouldn’t be
\nany. The fact is, I’ve been favorably impressed before by the
\nprecocious talents of young singer-songwriters like
\nMichelle Branch<\/a>, and, despite my
\nfairly typical affinity for the underdog, I’m not averse to giving
\na major-label artist props when they earn them. All that said, I
\nstill find myself grinning with surprise as I announce to the world
\nthat this album absolutely kicked my ass.<\/p>\n

Maria Mena is an 18-year-old singer-songwriter from Norway, and
\nSony’s hoped-for Next Big Thing here in the States. A few songs on
\nthis album — her American debut — previously saw light in Europe
\nas part of her 2001 hit album
\nAnother Phase<\/i>, recorded when she was just 15. In terms of
\nmusical style, it’s pretty mainstream pop-rock, nothing terribly
\nremarkable in terms of production or arrangements. In terms of
\nlyrics and songwriting, however, it’s simply one of the best albums
\nI’ve heard this year.<\/p>\n

Mena’s appeal is the way her songs so artfully capture a certain
\ntime in life — those super-charged middle teens, where life
\ndissolves into a series of intensely-felt moments filled with
\nawkwardness and desperation, surging hormones and flagging
\nself-esteem. Singers having been writing songs about not fitting in
\nfor as long as music has existed, it seems, but rarely with this
\ncombination of raw vulnerability and sure-handed emotional
\ntruth.<\/p>\n

You can sense it right from the start. In the opener and first
\nsingle, “You’re The Only One,” Mena presents the verses as
\nspoken-word asides coming straight from the narrator’s giddy head,
\nbefore launching into the soaring, hook-laden chorus. Mena’s
\nsometimes-startling frankness only serves to underscore the
\npoignancy of verses like this: “I hope you can forgive me for that
\ntime \/ When I put my hand between your legs \/ And said it was small
\n\/ ‘Cause it’s really not at all \/ I guess there’s just a part of me
\nthat likes to bring you down \/ Just to keep you around \/ ‘Cause the
\nday you realize how amazing you are \/ You’re gonna leave me.”<\/p>\n

By turns flirty and petulant, raw and vulnerable, this is as
\ntrue a portrait of a teenaged girl’s inner life as I’ve experienced
\nanywhere outside of an Annie Lamott novel. And yes, the echoes of
\nAlanis Morissette are clear right away — this is a young female
\nsinger-songwriter of prodigious talent who lacks only one thing:
\nfear.<\/p>\n

Mena sings with similarly bracing intimacy about the impact of
\nher parent’s divorce (“My Lullaby”) and the burden of expectations
\nshe feels from her father (“Blame It On Me”). The latter she pulls
\noff particularly well by having the guts and perspective to write
\nthe song from her father’s point of view. As compelling as these
\nmoments are, though, they’re deeply personal, and therefore perhaps
\nnot quite as universal in appeal as the intense vulnerability Mena
\ndisplays on the amazing “Just A Little Bit” and “Sorry.”<\/p>\n

“Just A Little Bit” is a catalog of every teenaged girl’s
\ninsecurities that simply makes your heart ache with recognition as
\nthe narrator wishes she was “Just a little bit stronger \/ Just a
\nlittle bit wiser \/ Just a little less needy\u2026 Just a little
\nbit pretty \/ Just a little more aware \/ Just a little bit thinner \/
\nAnd maybe I’d get there.” In between these choruses lie verses
\nfilled with images that slap you in the face with the emotional
\nprice some girls pay trying too hard to fit in and be cool:
\n“Clearly, clearly I remember \/ Pulling up my shirt \/ Staring blank
\nahead \/ Clearly, clearly I remember \/ Days of useless crying \/
\nAlmost feeling dead.”<\/p>\n

“Sorry” is another devastating piece of emotional truth-telling,
\na very pretty, very raw acoustic ballad about an unrequited love.
\n“Why can’t you love me, I’ll change for you, I’ll play the part,”
\nMena sings, and the saddest part is, you sense this song’s narrator
\nis so vulnerable that she really would give up her very identity in
\nexchange for the smallest affirmation. It’s of course possible for
\nbaring one’s soul to come off as maudlin or self-pitying, but you
\nwon’t find a single misstep in that direction here. Mena’s candor
\nand clarity in the act of sharing her innermost self with the world
\ninvest this album with an emotional resonance that’s rare and
\nprecious.<\/p>\n

While
\nWhite Turns Blue<\/i> isn’t going to be mistaken for a Phish
\nalbum, it does offer some musical variety. Mena executes the
\nquiet\/loud, hard\/soft thing superbly on “Take You With Me” and
\n“Your Glasses,” proving that she sounds equally at home rocking out
\nas playing gentler love songs. Somewhere in the middle, she attacks
\nthe juking nightclub-jazz experiment “Lose Control” like a pro,
\nabsolutely nailing the vocal, and you realize this girl has no fear
\nfor a reason — as Reggie Jackson once famously said, “It ain’t
\nbragging if you can do it.”<\/p>\n

I’ll grant you, my perceptions of this album may be colored
\nslightly by having a 15-year-old daughter of my own — it’s hard
\nnot to be touched by songs that seem to speak from your own child’s
\nsoul. Be that as it may, I believe
\nWhite Turns Blue<\/i> is the work of a remarkable new voice.
\nMaria Mena, I am your fan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7046],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-38019","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-maria-mena","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38019","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38019"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}