With the endorsement of American greats from Bonnie Raitt to Art Garfunkel, Maia Sharp’s flag is set to fly with the release of album Echo on May 3.
Give it a few spins, and some of the songs begin to charm. The guitar on ‘Angel On My shoulder’ has a beautiful tone, and the harmonies are warming, but it’s hard to see past the cheesy lyrics, and it’s difficult not to feel that this has been done before – and after – with either more skill or more intelligence.
Sharp comes from a musically rich upbringing and says “Echo is the first album I’ve ever done where there’s truth in every song.” Perhaps the album speaks more to the prevalence of production values, and she also states, “I wrote a lot of other songs during that same time, but these felt especially right for me and cohesive with each other. There’s a common thread of flaw and imperfection recognition and then celebration. Perfection is highly overrated and, I’m betting, pretty boring. It took me a while to get here but I’m okay that I’m not perfect.”
Despite the impressive album collaborators that scream out from the press release, Sharp is better alone. On ‘The Girl On Her Way’ we can hear a husky voice recalling Tori Amos, woven to a piano ballad. Her voice easily grabs hold of melodies and flies around with ease, it sounds better lower, as on ‘Whole Flat World’, but the chorus does include the line ‘you were my favorite movie.’
The album settles in the American country canon, albeit one diluted for chart success, and unfortunately lacking the original spark of the music from which it springs.
5/10, released 3 May 2010 on Blix Street Records
Words by Lizzie Simner
