{"id":40960,"date":"2008-06-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/mantra-ep\/"},"modified":"2008-06-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-21T00:00:00","slug":"mantra-ep","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/mantra-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"Mantra (EP)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The bio that arrived in the mail with <st1:city><st1:place>New   York City<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> singer-songwriter Sheri Miller\u2019s six-song debut EP <i>Mantra<\/i> describes her sound as \u201chypnotic bluesy American soul meets classic British melodic-pop.\u201d\u00a0 To which I can only add &#8212; well, about 400 words.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The description is apt, though, as the building blocks for Miller\u2019s fully-realized sound appear to include roughly equal shares of the Beatles, Ella Fitzgerald and Joni Mitchell.\u00a0 A bit of musical chameleon, in other words, but a charismatic one, imbued with just the kind of breezy confidence you\u2019d need to pull that combination off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Miller\u2019s charisma is on full display on the hooky, melodic opener \u201cWaste My Breath,\u201d with a frequently clever lyric about the tribulations of loving a liar.\u00a0 The sound is radio-friendly alt-rock in the Meredith Brooks \/ Paula Cole vein, and it suits Miller\u2019s powerful voice.\u00a0 Having made that attention-grabbing statement, Miller immediately shifts gears with the title track, an introspective, rather jazzy piano-centered ballad with a chorus that leads you on before springing a surprising insight in its final line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Next track \u201cDevil In White\u201d is a hooky power-pop number (what can I say, I\u2019m a sucker for handclaps and full stops) that Miller sings in a forceful style that reminds immediately of KT Tunstall\u2019s big single of a year or so ago, \u201cBlack Horse And The Cherry Tree.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a strong cut with obvious radio appeal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The least interesting song here is probably the rather languid mid-tempo ballad \u201cAll He Has To Do,\u201d whose string arrangement at least adds some texture to a bland, somewhat predictable love lyric.\u00a0 \u201cRight Here, Right Now\u201d follows with what at first feels like more of the same, but picks up the energy level a bit and adds a tasteful acoustic solo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Closing things out, \u201cThe Blade\u201d has an interesting, intricate melody, but the payoff at the chorus feels like it\u2019s missing something &#8212; a stronger punchline, a stronger hook, something.\u00a0 And \u201ceveryone hurts\u201d as a repeated phrase is too close to the old R.E.M. single \u201cEverybody Hurts\u201d &#8212; which of course had a stellar chorus hook\/payoff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The first three tracks on <i>Mantra<\/i> are both strong and varied, demonstrating range and talent aplenty.\u00a0 If the second half of this EP lived up to the promise of its opening trio, it would have rated higher.\u00a0 As it is, it\u2019s half of an appealing debut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8219],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-40960","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-sheri-miller","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40960","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=40960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40960"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}