All most people know about Paula Cole, if they know anything at all, is that damn cowboys song \u2013 that and she sang the theme song to Dawson\u2019s Creek.<\/i><\/p>\n
This is a darn shame.<\/p>\n
Cole has, in the time since her brief foray into chart success and Grammy relevance, become a revelatory and personal songwriter and musician; her life, her marriage, her child, and her divorce have been documented in almost painfully naked songs. Her fifth album, Ithaca<\/i>, is very much the heart of this process; with its title reminiscent of finally coming home after a long journey, it reflects a woman who has come a long, difficult road and still has far to go.<\/p>\n
There are places where Ithaca<\/i> is hard to listen to, not because of the quality, but because of the anger simmering just under the surface of the music. \u201cWaiting On A Miracle\u201d is a defiant send-off for an unfaithful husband, while \u201cMusic In Me\u201d throws Cole\u2019s newly-found independence and faith in the face of a rough childhood and rougher adulthood. But throughout, Cole\u2019s elegant, supple voice \u2013 with an amazingly dynamic range \u2013 emotes, performs, and drags you in.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say there aren\u2019t some lighter and gentler moments. \u201cCome On Inside\u201d is an intimate look at the beginnings of a relationship, and \u201cSex\u201d is\u2026well\u2026just that. Use your imagination (in a good way). If you ever wanted to hear Paula Cole channeling Barry White, this is your chance, and it works.<\/p>\n
There are a few miscues: while \u201cP.R.E.N.U.P.\u201d tries to be a sassy, funny look at divorce, it never quite hits its stride, and \u201cViolet Eyes\u201d is suffers from Cole mumbling rather than her normal pristine delivery. On the whole, however, I recommend Ithaca<\/i> strongly. While Cole has had difficulty finding mainstream success since her high-water year of 1997, she has grown up both as a musician and a person, and her charting of the journey is definitely worth a listen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":33997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5793],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-45825","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-paula-cole","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45825","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\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45825"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45825"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}