Esthero was featured on several soundtracks and collaborated with a myriad of other artists after her first release, but no second album arrived. There was on-and-off talk of a follow-up album, but more than five years passed before any substantial new material by the “Pink Pirate” hit music shelves.
A few weeks ago that all changed. A mini-album, titled We R In Need of a Musical Revolution is finally now in stores. The album contains only five tracks, plus a sixth bonus track. Not much of a bonus, really, unless you take into consideration that this CD costs about half the price of a full-length. Not one to be shy of making a statement, the new album starts of with the vibrant red head belting the words, “I’m so sick and tired of the shit on the radio… I want something more!”
Esthero explains this further in the album's liner notes. The title track is a statement, a call to arms, about how “We live in a world where in the same week a man who is accused of statutory rape can also have the largest selling record of his career. … I am concerned about us, all of us who truly love music, to whom music is a soundtrack of the key moments in our lives, and yet stand idly by and watch while our airwaves are controlled and polluted by people who program music so it doesn’t interfere with the frequencies generated by the hamburger commercials they peddle. …”
And what better way to start a musical revolution than having a blood relative of a Beatle on the record. Two songs on the album are co-written by Sean Lennon, the first of which is called Everyday Is a Holiday (With You) which, in my humble opinion, sounds like it could have been on a Beatles record.
Guitar, bass, drums, horns, and a singalong melody provide a mix that would probably meet the approval of Lennon Sr. and/or Sir Paul McCartney. Yet, in a nutshell, it lacks the originality that it would take to launch a musical revolution. The album is really more a statement about the state of the music industry and the corporate entities running the show than a solution or offering about what music should sound like. Esthero doesn't really push any envelopes on this offering, she's merely echoing a universal sentiment that someone should.
Article comments
1 - mrbenning
Great post. I've been a big fan of Esthero for about four years. She's a great musical talent that deserves all sorts of success. It's just unfortunate that more people don't know about her.
2 - Temple Stark
Jason,
Now maybe a few more people will.
I point you to the Alabama music review site of Advance.net.
Your review's up there, loud and proud. Please go and tell your contacts that hundreds of thousands more readers will now have access to your review.
- temple