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Erika Jayne - Pretty Mess
- “Pretty Mess” is dance-pop singer Erika Jayne’s debut album. She appropriately compares herself to Madonna. You can definitely see the connection, particularly from some of Madonna’s more recent music. The opening track, “Stars,” displays this style the best. There isn’t huge range in her vocals, but there rarely is with the prevalent electronic sounds that dominate the CD.
Majority of the songs are very upbeat and full of energy, nothing less than what you would expect from a dance-centric album. “Everybody Wants Some” starts off with an electric guitar riff alongside Erika Jayne’s soft tempting voice. Between the teasing vocals and the dominant beat, the song takes you in. This is sure to be one of the biggest hits off of the CD. Erika Jayne’s cover of “Sex Shooter” is sure to grab attention and sex appeal. The electronical influence works best in this track as it helps emphasize a vibe that the gun is shooting out. The background robotic chanting reminded me a lot of that in Kanye West’s “Stronger.” “Pretty Mess” is a youthful, imaginative, and fun filled song, with a good balance of smooth sounding singing and the toxic beat that builds up more and more.
“Roller Coaster” is just barely short of belonging in the techno genre. It overdoes the electric tones, even seeming to take over Erika Jayne’s voice, making it overly robotic for no particular reason. When her voice is more clear, it sounds almost identical to Britney Spears. There is no range displayed and it lies very flat, similar to the lyrics themselves. “Time to Realize” unfortunately falls into this category too. There’s almost too much going on, distracting from Erika. Perhaps this is because there isn’t anything particularly compelling about her vocals here or the trivial lyrics being sung. “Beautiful” is a slower track that displays the depth of Erika Jayne’s voice a little better. It still sounds quite similar to other songs on the album and overall gets old pretty fast.
Towards the end of the CD, things settle down as we get away from the hyped up dance numbers and into the flowing ballads. “Without You” begins this softer tone of the tracks. It’s probably the least distinctive song on the album. It’s nothing we haven’t heard before. At the same time, it’s also a nice change of pace. There is much less background music and overpowering beats, thus Erika’s voice is the center of the song as it should be. It actually could have been a solid song if the lyrics were a little less generic.
“Love You Forever” is a somewhat odd mix of ballad and dance track. It has a very slow beat and pace to it that eventually becomes more prevalent and noticeable. It gradually forms to a track where you can pick out the beat. It begins as a love song and ends up being about the desire for dancing. It’s a subtle change and the song has enough of both elements to make it work. “I Lose Myself” is similar to this track, almost too much in that it doesn’t really stand out from the previous song that had some creativity through the merging of song types.
Erika Jayne’s “Pretty Mess” seems to be all about the extremes. This did hurt some of the songs at times. The tracks I found myself not liking quite as much as others were either overly electronic or void of these beats and somewhat bland. Most of the lyrics on the album aren’t particularly memorable and don’t seem to have that much thought behind them. The first half of the CD is overly electronic, making it chaotic as it takes away from Erika Jayne’s singing. The other songs that weren’t the best were void of the massive number of varying beats. Although, we were able to focus on Erika’s sensual voice and range that has previously been hidden there isn’t much that is particularly intriguing about these songs. The lyrics are pretty unimaginative and it is hard to really get into them as many sound like one that we previously just heard on the album. If Erika would have something more compelling or exciting to sing about, I think I would have liked the CD a lot more. I did enjoy it overall, but I can’t say any of the tracks were necessarily very memorable. I wish some of the party songs would have embodied a stronger sense of carefree fun. Some of the more upbeat numbers were somewhat fun, but more because of the tempo than what the song was really about. “Pretty Mess” shows Erika Jayne’s strong sexuality and flare for dance music. There are a number of upbeat tracks, slow tracks, and even one that seems to incorporate both styles. Bland lyrics, overemphasis on electronic effects, and repetitiveness hold the CD back from a clear potential that Erika Jayne does hold.
Reviewer: Kelsey Zukowski
new
Reviewer's Rating: 6
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 18-Jul-2009
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