Categories : Country + Western, Music Reviews.
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Rating: 2.5/5 Released: May 23, 2006 Reviewer: Trent Depue |
For best friends Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp, making a country album is something both have always dreamed of doing. And now, years after their similar styles in voice and music brought them together, the dream has come to fruition in the form of Stand Still, Look Pretty, a venture in pop-country comparable to the spring release from Rascal Flatts, Me and My Gang.
What is most interesting is that despite their commonalities, it seems they undertook this venture for completely opposite reasons, Jessica to accelerate her rise to fame, and Michelle to try and escape it, if only by hiding behind a different name and slipping into a new genre. This is apparent in both their writings, Jessica undertaking the more pop-country stereotypical stance of lost loves and heartbreak while Michelle often comments on the pressures of her fame, most apparently in the title track (“I want to paint my face/And pretend that I am someone else/Sometimes I get so fed up/I don’t even want to look at myself”).
Despite their fantastic vocal harmonies and excellent musical production, the lyrical subject matter does become tiresome, and as is the case with much of the pop-country genre, creativity is lacking. This has the effect of making Stand Still, Look Pretty relatively unremarkable. And although there can be no denying that these two women are extremely talented, you can’t help but think that they are capable of so much more.
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