Michelle Anthony: Stand Fall Repeat

It's nice to have an opportunity to review a new CD and a live performance at the same time. It can pose some difficulties too.

Milwaukee-based Michelle Anthony's debut CD presents her as an alt-country chanteuse in the vein of Lucinda Williams. A fine bass player and pianist, Anthony, who is model-thin, has a powerful, rich voice reminiscent of Mama Cass or Ellen McIlwaine. But her sensibility, in spite of the CD's relatively lush arrangements, has more in common with the starkness of Lucinda Williams or Liz Phair.

Though she's a far better singer than either one, Anthony is not in their league as a songwriter (not yet, anyway). She may have the potential, though.

The CD opens, strangely, with a slow number called "Mourning Song," which builds to a big climax but doesn't embody the thoroughbred energy Anthony draws on in her more up-tempo songs. "Don't Deny" and "Family Tree" are where the Liz Phair vibe comes on most strongly, and the latter is quite catchy and one of my favorites. "All This Time," on the other hand, while not a bad song, sounds like a Christine McVie effort that didn't make the grade for a Fleetwood Mac album.

If there's a breakout song on this CD, it's the frenetic, Dylan-esque "Ellouise" which describes a writer (read: singer-songwriter) who "steals souls for her pen" and "sings her feminine wiles" yet can't create anything as vivid as real life, as the rousing chorus declares: "Life is better fiction so it wins." This is the song that sticks with me most after listening several times to the CD. I would have put it first on the album, or at least in the first three. Why it's seventh is beyond me.

"Bubble Clock" is another high-powered winner, putting a glam-rock sheen on chilling lyrics about kidnapped children:

So we hold our hands

In the dead of day

There's two hands cuffed

Two hands pray...


No no, nobody's allowed to cry

He screams, "nobody's allowed to cry!"

Anthony's lyrics are interesting and literate throughout, and sometimes poetic, as in "Today," the CD's best ballad:

So change your face, cut your nails, smooth out all your fraying ends

Start your car and shade your eyes, swallow all your little pills

Hold your breath as you drive past the old life that has died

The only real downer is the ballad "Closer" which doesn't go anywhere and does nothing for me - when she sang it live, my wife and I found ourselves playing with the straws in our drinks and wondering when the song would be over. (Someone likes it, though - it's being used in a movie.)

Article Author: Jon Sobel

Jon Sobel is Co-Executive Editor of Blogcritics. As a writer he contributes most often to the Culture section, where he often reviews NYC theater; he also writes a semi-regular review round-up of independent music releases. …

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