If there was one woman's voice that dominated the music scene in 1996, it was Alanis Morrissette. And the woman most likely to take over that since-vacated throne, Meredith Brooks, will draw plenty of comparisons to Morrissette on her debut album, Blurring The Edges.
The opening track on Blurring The Edges immediately brings the Alanis comparisons to the forefront. The drum machine (Morrissette's best friend, other than her guitar and Glen Ballard) and cross somewhere between singing and speaking throughout "I Need" - even with that tracks' slight Middle Eastern guitars twanging - harken out to the Canadian who sold more than 12 million copies of Jagged Little Pill.
But if Brooks' sounds parallels Morrissette's, her lyrics don't. This woman would rather spend her time with friends, listening to Todd Rundgren rather than checking up on an ex-lover's new flame. One likely future single, the upbeat, sing-along "My Little Town", shows Brooks coming to grips with the fact that she's now a city girl, while remembering all the good features of her Oregon upbringing.
Of course, tearing up the airwaves is the leadoff single, "Bitch". With no cognizance of the Stones, Brooks combines the passion of Sheryl Crow and Sophie Hawkins (circa "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover") into an anthem for the 20-something woman of the 90s. Its refrain of "I'm a bitch, I'm a lover / I'm a child, I'm a mother / I'm a sinner, I'm a saint / I do not feel ashamed" is likely to draw groups of slightly buzzed rock clubbers to sing the chorus, en masse, in little circles in this tale of a woman more than capable of standing up for herself, but who has *human* elements about her; she'll cry, admit that it's hard for her to change and realizes how challenging it is for her companion to deal with her.
And so it goes. There's plenty of Alanis comparisons to be sure, ("What Would Happen" just threatens to break into "You Oughtta Know", as does "Birthday") but not all the tracks rely on a standard formula. There's more Sheryl Crow influences on "Stop" and some from Courtney Love's group Hole on "Wash My Hands". "Somedays" opens with an introduction similar to Love & Rockets ("No New Tale To Tell"). and morphs into different mini-sections of guitar chords, all linked together by Brooks' vocals. The token ballad "Watched You Fall", with its "Twin Peaks"-like guitar, throws an interesting monkey wrench into any calls of predictability, while "It Don't Get Better" walks a tightrope between country hillbilly and Depeche Mode guitars ("Personal Jesus").
Yet even as Brooks charts familiar territory crafted by Crow, Hawkins, Morrissette and other female success stories, she is busy blazing her own path. Regardless of what her music sounds like, approval all boils down to how the *songs* are - and there isn't a weak track out of the 12 songs contained herein. More to the point, there are at least 5 songs which could be ready-made radio hits.
If this were Ms. Morrissette's second album where she *wasn't* doing a Jody Watley-meets-Tiffany impression, it would be hailed as a success. But there seems to be some unwritten rule which states that a new artist *can't* be derivative of some huge success - witness the praise heaped upon Nine Inch Nails, and the scorning of artists influenced by NIN. With or without this critical approval, Brooks will do just fine with Blurring The Edges. One of the standout albums of 1997.
