Annette – Growing Into Myself (CD)

The melody of a track like “Growing Into Myself” takes its sweet time coalescing into something appreciable. The low-key backing beat of the track gives the song a decidedly early0nineties sheen, while Annette’s vocals seem like a lesser Madonna. There is no lack of talent in arrangement here on “Growing Into Myself”, but there might be n issue with the visualization of where the disc should go.

Everything here has a certain static nature; Annette is not really trying eirself, not trying to better the general sound on the disc. At fifteen trackd, the biggest question is whether a few of the tracks on “Growing Into Myself” could have been cut from the final edit of the disc. This regimen should have been enacted alongside a shortening of a number of the tracks on “Growing Into Myself”; there is a trend for some of these songs to be in the late four-early minute side of things. Nearly sixty minutes of this very sedate music will challenge all but the biggest fans of Annette to keep focus. The disc’s first “hit” is Annette’s cover of the Bryan Adams track “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You”. Still, what is “hit” worthy is not the instrumentation, but the emotion present in Annette’s voice. There is no lack of diversity in regards to the styles that Annette attempts on the disc; there are hints of jazz in “Growing Into Myself” and a more Latin type of feel in “Heaven is 10 Zillion Light Years Away”. Even with this variation in the general sound of the disc, everything is given a whitewash that makes it accessible to all individuals.

This is at the expense of a certain experimental or innovative sound; the only major exception to this rule comes during the covers that Annette does during the disc, and this may just be because there has to be some faithful transcription of the original in the cover. For those individuals that like mellow rock and pop, “Growing Into Myself” may be that album that one has to pick it up. Outside of that little circle of fans, however, I just do not see a large section of individuals that would clamor for the style of music here. Well done but somewhat lacking in vision, “Growing Into Myself” needs a little growing outward in terms of structure (as the general sound is pretty grown-out already) before Annette can really succeed.

Top Tracks: Deeper, In The Blink of an Eye

Rating: 3.6/10

Annette – Growing Into Myself / 2005 Inspired / 15 Tracks / http://www.annettesongs.com / http://www.inspiredrecords.com / Reviewed 17 December 2005

[JMcQ]