If only she could keep up the pace. The song takes a quiet turn (“I miss it when your heart’s not around / Please slow down”) before revving up again.
The rest of the album follows her lead:
• The intro on “For the Love of Love” sounds like a flock of seagulls, the real thing, not the cheesy Eighties group, and includes pounding tribal drums, blazing guitars and finger-snapping Forties-style harmonies (“Oh, I dooo; I tried, toooo.”)
• “Just One Tear” might be the best overall cut, a scolding warning to a cheating lover (“Say you’ll never do the same again”) as Boucher shows off her significant vocal chops.
• The lead single, “Gun For a Tongue,” is as seductive as Boucher’s face (luscious fuchsia-colored lips, a swath of blue over her right eyelid) appears on the album cover, but the words are just plain creepy. What’s a girl with “a gun for a tongue” plan to do anyway?
• The title track is a Debby Downer, a weeper with a simple message (“It’s scary to be fragile”) saved by its lush orchestration.
• “Bright Red” is disguised as a peppy Sheryl Crow-on-a-good-day pick-me-upper but its lyrics (“Help and throw me a rope / I think I’m drowning face down”) suggest otherwise.
Unfortunately, this uneven pattern throws a listener off balance, which might work better for a skilled boxer than a jill-of-all-trades entertainer who ought to think twice about keeping her audience guessing.
Boucher is obviously a talented songwriter (contributing regularly to shows like Grey’s Anatomy, the latest “A Bitter Song”), an inspiring collaborator (she and David Bowie paired up for "Changes" on the Shrek 2 soundtrack) and a graceful stage presence, who proved just that as far back as 2004. During Sarah McLachlan’s excellent Afterglow tour, Boucher won over many new fans as the opening act, her yummy single “Another White Dash” receiving its fair share of attention and radio play. And she obviously has McLachlan in her corner.
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