Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present to you the best thing that Michelle Branch has ever done. (Well, at least the best thing she's done musically. I can't speak for her personal life - she'd probably cite "getting married and giving birth to my first child" or some similarly transcendent experience, and I'm not her, so end of aside.) She's an artist who I've followed ever since her label debut The Spirit Room in 2001, when she was a mere teenager, and who has always hooked me with strong pop songs that were better than I expected from any "teen pop" artist (that type of artist being the bane of my existence circa the turn of the century), but never quite managed to impress me with a solid album. She's almost there with her latest effort - but she didn't do it alone.

You see, Branch is now one-half of the country duo The Wreckers, which she formed with her good friend and backup singer Jessica Harp a few years back while touring for her second album, Hotel Paper. It was a move that earned Branch a lot of criticism from fans, to the point where she had to close her own message board for a while due to the hurtful things being said about her. Anything sounding remotely Western or twangy tends to scare off a lot of pop fans who are convinced they're too "urban" for all that, and then I guess there were a lot of rumors flying about Branch's personal life, too. So while that sort of harsh criticism comes with the territory and I can't say she should have been surprised, I also can't blame her for wanting to start over career-wise, with a joint effort like this one that would leave the door open for Branch to return to her former style as a solo artist if she chose to at a later date. Personally, I hope she sticks with what she's got going now. Her brand of pop/rock was enjoyable enough, but looking back, I was more easily impressed by the fact that a pretty young pop artist was actually marketed on the basis of her skill with an instrument (the guitar) and not on the basis of her dancing, than I was with the actual music. These days there's a little more wit to the music made by Branch (and Harp) - still a bit of immaturity sneaking into the lyrics here and there, but lots of life to be found in the sassy steel guitars and fiddles and mandolins that sit alongside the familiar acoustic guitar and pop/rock rhythms that drive each song.

This isn't a country album for purists, but if you're gonna do country-pop, this is sure a lot better than the dull regression of an album that what the Dixie Chicks were able to win Grammies with recently (mostly, I suspect, due to their outspoken political beliefs acting as a smokescreen for watered-down music that was really no excuse after their fabulous return to roots a few years prior - but that's a whole other review for me to write).

Stand Still, Look Pretty is, quite honestly, a progression that makes total sense for Branch. She's always played the guitar on her own records instead of being a 100% manufactured pop artist (maybe 50% manufactured when she first appeared on the scene and closer to 30% on her second album); it's natural that her creative output would tend towards something more earthy and less slick over time. She's also been caught in a few crossfires, and while I seriously doubt that Branch and Harp have been through enough "jaded due to my total loss of innocence" type of experiences in their 20-some years to justify writing like they're twice their age on a few of these tracks, the time-tested sentiments about the trappings of fame and the pain caused by those who love and threaten to leave mostly ring true. These two women are able to show tender vulnerability one minute, and spit out a bit of edgy salt and vinegar the next - the language gets a tad bit rougher at times than I think is really necessary, as if trying too hard to prove how grown up they are, but the combination of those two sweet voices sells it nearly every time. (Honestly, Branch and Harp sound so similar to each other that I can't tell who's singing lead on any of these tracks, but when another layer is stacked on top of Michelle's slightly mush-mouthed, pouty vocal style, the mood very easily shifts from "teenager's diary" to "a slice of pop music heaven". The fact that it's produced as an organic, slightly twangy country-rock experience just makes the poppy elements work ten times better. You're not going to confuse it with some rabble-rousing, half-drunk, honky-tonk band you heard in some roadhouse the other day, But then I kind of think these girls are too sweet to be that rugged, even if they spend half of their words on trying to convince me otherwise.

Leave the Pieces
Now you can drag out the heartache
Baby, you can make it quick
Really get it over with
And just let me move on...
Fiddles are always a good way to start off this sort of an album. So are "love me or leave me"-type stories that hang your heart out on a line for everyone to see. So it goes with Branch and Harp's debut single, where there voices converge in sweet harmony as one of the girls pleads for a wishy-washy cowboy to either show her some dedication or get the hell out. He's putting off making a decision because he's afraid she's just a poor, fragile thing who won't survive the lost, and she's basically saying, "Look dude, it'll be easier for me to clean up the mess if I knew you were gone for good". It's a sassy send-off played with just enough doe-eyed sadness that you almost believe she'd let go of the bitterness for a second if he just whipped out the right charming words. The girls sure make the song an irresistible plea, with a banjo plunking around during the first chorus and the "full band" sound, complete with countrified electric guitar riffage, coming in later. By the time they get to the rousing, "Yeah-ee-yeah" near the end of the song, they've pretty much got you in the palms of their hands.

Way Back Home
Somewhere in the country, there's a place
Where nobody knows your name
When I'm feeling lonely, there's a train
That helps me run away...
A sweetly performed favorite of mine appears early here, in the form of this more introspective, dusty ballad about a longing to escape everything that is familiar and hit the open road. The bright sound of high-strung acoustic guitar and mandolin ring out like rays of morning sunshine illuminating the pavement under your car as you escape before anyone else can wake up and notice you're gone. The girls sing together for the entirety of the song, which adds a lot of dimension to an otherwise simple tune. Lyrically it's pretty basic, without a bridge to some things up before one last return to the familiar chorus about a mother warning her daughter that she'll get lost if she keeps on picking roads just to see where they go. But there's a delicious bit of fiddle playing in the instrumental midsection, so I don't mind the brevity of the lyrics all that much.

The Good Kind
"Do you wanna run away together?"
I would say it was your best line ever
Too bad I fell for it...
This song made its debut well before the album did, on some WB drama or something (what can I say, Michelle's an easy fit for that type of thing despite the attempt at an image makeover). It's a pretty good example of how the two girls can melt your heart with a strong chorus harmony - probably one of the strongest on the whole CD. The basic acoustic guitar strum that lads you into the song is probably more of a comfortable segue for those used to Branch's more pop-oriented material. There's some twangy slide guitar stuff, too, which I enjoy, so everyone's happy. Well, until they really listen to the lyrics in the chorus, that is. A reasonably good setup involving a guy who makes bogus promises about stealing away with her to some romantic happily-ever-after leads into a rather clunky chorus that tries to say something clever with too few words: "Do you know why I cry? Do you know why I die? Do you know why I cry? And it's not the good kind." I get the idea, that there's a good, healthy, restorative kind of crying, and this isn't it, it's just bummed out and hopeless crying. The phrasing's just awkward and incomplete. I do appreciate the subtle Eagles reference that Michelle makes, though, when she pouts, "I'm tired of hiding behind these lying eyes."

Tennessee
I never laid all my cards out
You just wanted to play
Keep you waiting on my doorsteps
While the joker and me went on our way...
You can spot the Jessica Harp songs written without Branch's assistance on this record - they're filled with a little more specificity and a little less of the emotional fundamentals and vague places common to Branch's material, and the youth-oriented brand of pop music from whence she came. The trade-off is that the hooks generally aren't as strong. Traveling is still a strong theme here, as it is in a lot of country songs - Jessica's left a guy behind in Tennessee, and she regrets being selfish and blowing him off. A little bit of dobro goes a long way to create a mood of melting alone in a hotel room somewhere, and Jessica's got a nice analogy involving playing cards in the first verse that could well have expanded into its own song idea if given the space too. To me, this song is pleasant and it gets its point across adequately, but it doesn't really stand out.

My, Oh My
This parking lot used to be a field
I parked here in my Oldsmobile
Long before Sonic and the Walgreens...
Here's the show-stopper. It's sassy, it's syncopated, it's one of those songs that makes me want to use the word "rollicking", which is a word that I normally despise. They threw a ton of country cliches at this one, but in doing so, they came up with a blast of a song that really rocks - slick electric guitar solos and twangy acoustic licks and hell-raisin' fiddles and all. I kind of had to laugh at first when the verse got going and one of the girls started to mope about how civilization went and sprung up along the old dirt road she used to drive down when she was eighteen - that was what, five years ago? Yet they make it sound like they're ancient and they've got total future shock going on. (Suburbia happens, ladies. Deal with it!) But then I found out that the song was co-written by Wayne Kirkpatrick, which amused me to no end, because I knew him in a former life as the songwriting side-kick to Christian pop singer Michael W. Smith. Anywho, this is the perfect song for those days when you feel a lot older than you really are and you wish you could be back in high school with no bills to pay and plenty of time to raise a ruckus on a Friday night. I love the use of the phrase "up and gone" in the chorus - did you ever notice that in country songs, people always "up and" do things, but in R&B or rap songs, they're always "up in" places? Or maybe that's just me.

Stand Still, Look Pretty
But people have problems that are worse than mine
I don't want you to think I'm complaining all the time
And I wish that everyone would go and shut their mouth
I'm not strong enough to deal with it...
You'd probably guess from the title that this is one of those ubiquitous "whining about being famous" songs. And you'd kind of be right, but that's not totally what it is. Michelle's definitely got the "You might think it's easy being me" thing going on, which is something we tend to hear more of from self-referential alt-rockers or pop stars who spend every album after their first on narcissistic songs about being "real" despite being big pop stars. But there's some genuine vulnerability here as the acoustic guitar and banjo slowly pick out a solemn tune. Michelle's been ragged on a bit for switching musical styles, for leaving her solo career behind (at least temporarily), for her personal life, for some of her harsh comments in response to those who rag on her, and sure, a person could always respond to these things with more maturity, but I get that it's a real pain to have people critiquing your every move. The sentiment rings true because it's not just Michelle dismissing all of the haters, it's her admitting that the wounds do linger for a bit. She has more to do that "Just stand still, look pretty", which some of us might assume is all her job entails. That's fair. (Though it might be a bit of a cheap shot to criticize people for regarding your looks above your talent when you've consented to have scantily-clad pictures of yourself published in Maxim. I'm just sayin'.)

Cigarettes
Radio's playin' old country songs
Someones leavin', someones cheatin', on, on, and on...
Harp's second song on the album that she wrote solo (I associate a lot of the other stuff with Michelle's writing since I know her style better, but that's not really fair, since Harp's co-written nearly everything up to this point) draws on a familiar image that acts as a visual icon for the loss of innocence - smoking cigarettes. Once again, she's the person who left, instead of the wishy-washy suitor who keeps coming and going in Branch's songs. Quite simply, she'd just rather be on her own with her vices and the country songs on the radio playing out the cliches that are true to her life. (Or the life of the character that she's created for the sake of the song - don't take my writing about any of these tracks to imply that I believe any of this stuff is actually really happening to either of these ladies.) The tone's rather bitter here, even if the music is slightly upbeat - she insists she doesn't need to dream any more, that she'll be perfectly OK by herself, and that the only mistake she's made was to "put up with his bullsh*t for far too long". That's one spot where I think the language is a little harsher than necessary, as if these ladies are trying to prove how grown-up they are, but I can let it go. It's still a decent song, if not a terribly captivating one.

Hard to Love You
Why do I try to make them happy
Why am I always playin' nice
It isn't easy tryin' to tell you
Exactly what's on my mind...
This ballad feels a bit clunky to me. It's probably the pace and rhythm of it - it feels like it could be smoothed out a little and have more of a contemplative, dramatic effect. I like the bits of banjo and piano that trickle into the song in different places - it's the earthy country influence butting up against the classic pop influences behind some of Branch's solo songs such as "Something to Sleep to" or "'Til I Get Over You". The vocals become nicely layered later in the song and the momentum improves a bit as it almost becomes a pop/rock ballad. Maybe it's just that it doesn't fit into its surroundings as well, or maybe I'm just having trouble figuring out who this "they" would be that she's been trying so hard to please, and how this relates to the "you" that "they" are making it hard to love. If it were a little more descriptive, I could have come to really enjoy it over time, but it's probably the album's weakest track as it is.

Lay Me Down
I hear you say, "It's not the same.
I'm sorry, it's something I just can't explain"
So shut your mouth and hold me close
We both know it's better then being alone...
More sweet, solid harmonies like we heard in "The Good Kind" are back to add color to this song's chorus. The clip-clop of the programming during the verses reminds me very much of a song called "Like Fugitives" from Rosanne Cash's latest album, but it's not an exact match or anything, just a sonic similarity between two of the few country artists that I know anything about. This song's another case where I find the meaning of the lyrics to be a bit muddled - the sugary, elongated plea in the chorus begs, "So lay me down, I'm lonely", but then this is followed counter intuitively by a bit of a backhanded slap: "You don't understand me, and you never even tried to anyway." It's as if a woman is admitting that a man totally doesn't get her, but he's a warm body to have beside her at night, so it's better than nothing. But then "lay me down" might refer to something other than literally laying down in bed - it could mean to release your hold on someone, to finally put the relationship to rest when you know you're just not compatible. Those are some ideas, but for the most part, I'm getting the "Well, you're the best I can get right now" vibe, which is totally a crappy reason to want to be with someone, but that's our relationship-obsessed American culture for you.

One More Girl
You don't know what you want
At this moment, could be me
You move your hand across my knee
Turn me into some novelty...
On of The Wreckers' most gripping songs turns out to have been written by Patty Griffin, one of those names I recognize due to her being the original artist behind several notable Dixie Chicks songs, so they're in good company. It's one of those dark, moody numbers where the electric guitars gently moan at the hint of a melody, and the rhythm is a slow, slinky beast, wriggling around in 3/4 time while the melody ascends in vain, only to slide back down in resolute bitterness. This one succeeds where "Stand Still, Look Pretty" only sort of worked - it confronts a man who sees one of the girls as his next shining starlet, his next piece of flesh to promote to an audience hungry for a pretty face, a hot body, and very little brains. She won't have none of that - she knows that a woman is worth more than to be viewed as "one more @$$ that got stuffed in some jeans". The language reachest its most confrontational point when she accuses the guy of seeing her as "just some b*tch who's probably got no life", as she has just finished pointing out that she's "Someone's sister, someone's wife" - a person of worth that isn't just there to do a sexy song and dance. I'm not sure what the talk of death and ashes does to prove her point, but that doesn't change the strong allure that I find in this song - the grown-up attitude rings true due to the stronger songwriting. The haunting "Yeah-eah"s during the bridge take an easy vocal trick that sounded so sweet in "Leave the Pieces" and turn it around to send chills up my spine. Patty Griffin did a good job writing this one, The Wreckers did an awesome job performing it, and these ladies really should think of collaborating with Griffin some more in the future.

Rain
I never speak up
I just tried to stay out of the way
And I must have messed up
'Cause that's all that I hear you say...
Very strong acoustic guitar on this one - it's moody and you can picture the droplets trickling down a window as a lonely housewife looks out it from within a domestic prison. Actually, the mental image created by the music gives a stronger connection to the song's theme than the actual lyrics do - Michelle's vague lyrics about a guy who pushes her around and treats her like crap are only weakly compared to the bad weather during the chorus - it's an analogy which is a bit cliched, but could work well if fleshed out some more. We get another use of the word "sh*t" in the second verse, which sounds even more awkwardly thrown in than it did in "Cigarettes" - Michelle's definitely biting off more than she can chew with the domestic abuse theme here. The chorus has a strong hook that falls in line with some of her angry rockers such as "Are You Happy Now?", but it's unfortunate that the pained, prolonged cry of "Rain" doesn't really match well with the words that follow it: "You must be sick or something, I can't take another day."

Only Crazy People
Well, he loved his whiskey, and his fist loved my face
So I buried that man, they won't find a trace...
If you can make it all the way through this final song and not realize that it's a joke, then you're probably about as uptight as I once was when I declared the Dixie Chicks' "Goodbye Earl" to be the most morally offensive song known to man. (I still hate that song, but I at least see the attempt at humor in it.) Over a lazy, loping 3/4 rhythm, the girls mock the country music cliche of crying in your beer over an incurable fetish for bad boys. "Bank robbers and killers, drunks and drug dealers" are the types of men that they assert will fall in love with them, and by the time one of the girls admits to killing her outlaw lover's wife, it's pretty clear that they're intentionally going for over-the-top as a strange homage to their influences. I don't find any of it particularly funny, mind you, since there are plenty of women who do fall in love with total creeps and make up a lot of excuses to stay with them despite the abuse, and if you've been through that or are close to someone who has, it's kind of hard to chuckle at it unless you just have a morbid sense of humor. The girls actually break out into a giggle fit after letting out one last drawl of a note at the end of the song, and it's great to see their personalities and know that they had a blast making this record, but it does make it feel like this more old-school country music is one of those "put on the goofy hick costume and smile for an embarrassing picture" sorts of things, rather than a style that they tried on due to having a healthy respect for it. Whatever. It's the end of the record; I'll give them leeway for one joke track.

Overall, I'm impressed at the clarity of delicious sound on this record, the willingness to grab elements of country that are really twangy and earthy and not dilute it into oblivion with total pop production , and the risk that Michelle must have known she was taking by switching up styles on her audience. The two girls could stand to write with a little more genuine maturity rather than having to pretend they're older than they are, but I suppose some of that will come as they actually do age. The youthfulness inherent in their performance now isn't something to be ashamed of - they just have to figure out how to get the subject matter, the lyrical vocabulary, and the style of performance to line up. But I reckon they're off to a fairly good start as it is, and I kind of hope Michelle has no plans for going back to her solo career any time soon.

ALBUM WORTH:
Leave the Pieces $1.50
Way Back Home $1.50
The Good Kind $1
Tennessee $1
My, Oh My $2
Stand Still, Look Pretty $1
Cigarettes $.50
Hard to Love You $.50
Lay Me Down $1
One More Girl $2
Rain $1
Only Crazy People $.50
TOTAL: $13.50

Website: http://www.thewreckers.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving