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BLOOD RED CHERRY
Jann Arden
(Universal)
Jann, Jann, you're at it again.
Having trouble lowering the boom on a doomed relationship? Say this to your (in)significant other: "I never really loved you ... I never even liked you. I only wanted sex."
Ouch. Leave it to the queen of melancholy to cut to the heart of love's perils, or should I say cut the heart out of them? You'll find lots of cynical gems like that on Jann Arden's fourth studio album, Blood Red Cherry - filled with themes of unrequited love as seen from both sides.
While she can even make a love song sound sad - and does - this album is more than heartbreak music to weep over. Arden gets experimental in the giddy, desperate Best Dress, which channels Bonnie Raitt, and in the African-flavoured percussion romp Another Human Being, doubtless inspired by her World Vision trip to Africa.
Some of these tunes feel uncomfortable dressed in such trendy, groomed-for-hit-radio production. You get the feeling that if Jann had her druthers, these would all be acoustic guitar ballads.
Then again, one can only take so much musical melancholy.
Track Listing
1. Waiting In Canada
2. Cherry Popsicle
3. Sleepless
4. Never Give Up On Me
5. Mend
6. I Only Wanted Sex
7. Taste Of This
8. Into The Sun
9. In Your Keeping
10. Best Dress
11. Another Human Being
12. Sorry For Myself
13. Janeen
14. Peice Of It All