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(Aug 23, 2004)
Rating - **
The Joanna McMeikan page
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Joanna McMeikan is a singer/songwriter who has her debut CD Breaking the Habit getting some national and international attention at the moment. According to McMeikan's website, the song "Again" reached number 5 on a German radio station. It makes me wonder if perhaps the lyrics were translated to German, the song would have a chance of reaching number 5 on an American radio station. Hey, don't laugh, it worked for Nena.
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Don't get me wrong - Ms. McMeikan has a truly outstanding singing voice. She clearly has the talent to become one of the most prominent female vocalists of the decade. Even at this point in her career, her voice is polished to a brilliant finish. It has the ability to go from a dramatic whisper to an anguished scream, jump two octaves up the scale and back down again, without ever making a misstep. It's a voice with no apparent intrinsic limitations whatsoever.
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Unfortunately, the same can't be said of her songwriting. The songs on Breaking the Habit, for the most part, sound like lounge music from the Poseidon Adventure. The lyrics are bland and the tunes are easily forgettable. A couple of the songs are better than others: "Merry-Go-Round," a song about a woman feeling middle-aged at 25 and wondering how to recapture her lost vitality, is a promising one. The last song on the album, "Today," also stands out. But the rest don't do much for me. I hope that Joanna McMeikan finds a better vehicle for her voice. I would not be surprised to see her end up with a very successful musical career, but she needs to strike out in a new artistic direction if she wants to leave her mark alongside the likes of Joni Mitchell and Annie Lennox, with whom her vocal talents are on par.
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