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Tracklist (CD)
| 1 | | Breakdown | | 3:53 | | 2 | | Angels Would Fall | | 4:40 | | 3 | | Stronger Than Me | | 4:08 | | 4 | | Into The Dark | | 4:59 | | 5 | | Enough Of Me | | 4:39 | | 6 | | Truth Of The Heart | | 4:31 | | 7 | | Mama I'm Strange | | 4:30 |
See more tracks| 8 | | Scarecrow | | 5:21 | | 9 | | How Would I Know | | 4:16 | | 10 | | My Lover | | 5:45 | | 11 | | Sleep | | 4:39 |
* Items below may differ depending on the release.
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Review
Melissa Etheridge is a powerhouse singer, a fervent performer, a crucial activist and an all-around good egg, but her albums' no-frills heartland rock rarely takes her to that higher plane she deserves. Her sixth album in twelve years starts out much the same as its dependable predecessors: heartfelt, introspective, robustly sung but otherwise indistinguishable from the last polished Bryan Adams product. Yet Breakdown takes a turn halfway through. "Mama I'm Strange" addresses nonconformity with nervy candor. "Scarecrow" honors murdered gay-bashing… Read More victim Matthew Shepard in bold, enraged strokes. There's a welcome fragility in the acoustic-led arrangements of "Truth of the Heart," "How Would I Know" and "Sleep" that matches the singer's newly nuanced songwriting maturity. But the career-peaking clincher is "My Lover," a slowly building, wildly ambivalent and sometimes wicked ode to codependency that comes from the same scary soul-searching place as John Lennon's "Mother." Finally, Etheridge the artist eclipses Etheridge the human being. (RS 824)
BARRY WALTERS
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