Blurring the Edges

Review by Rodney Gitzel

Meredith Brooks certainly loves guitars. You rarely see her without one, whether in videos or pictures or CD covers, and she even sings about them. My guess is she is trying hard to define herself as not just another female vocalist. Not only can she sing about being a bitch and 'flipping the bird,' but she can and does play all the guitars on her record, dammit! And well, at that.

It's just too bad all that talent isn't put to better use. Now, I won't deny that "Bitch" is not only catchy, but quite good; the problem is that the whole album sounds just like it. The other songs aren't quite as hooky, but they share that same trippy-jangley-punchy-beboppy sound. It's nice -- no, great -- in small doses (and, handily, the two best tunes, "I Need" and "Bitch" are at the start of the disc), but, after fifty-one minutes (!) of the same trippy drum loops, processed guitars and half-sung/half-spoken vocals, it's wearing rather thin, and you are really anxious to hit the ol' eject button.