One of the hardest things about a critic is having to review a record put out by someone you feel like you know. Perhaps it's all too easy, when critiquing a record, to forget that artists are people and they have feelings, and that they might read what you write and feel hurt if you're critical of their work. Even if you're aware of that and OK with that, it's obviously harder to be honest when you feel like it's the work of a friend. At the same time, you don't want to be compelled to shower praise on something that wouldn't normally deserve it just because it's the work of a friend. You might see special value in someone you know a little better than most people would, but just because they're a warm and friendly person who remembers your face and asks how you're doing doesn't mean that they should get a free pass in terms of artistic merit.

I wouldn't exactly call independent pop/folk singer Corrinne May a close friend - I mean, she's a singer and I'm a fan/critic and we live in totally different worlds - but she is definitely a memorable acquaintance. She's certainly one of the nicest people I've ever met, and she's got one of the sharpest memories, recalling my name ever since the first time I attended one of her shows back in 2001, and even remembering details I've mentioned to her at previous shows, and the fact that I wrote a nice review for her back then. I liked her first album quite a bit - it may have had a hopelessly romantic tone to a lot of it that would seem more appropriate for a primarily female audience, but I was captivated. And ever since then, when I've spoken with her after a show, I've bugged her about when her long-awaited second album was finally going to release. She had been playing songs from it that I had been looking forward to having recorded versions of, so it was only a natural question. Life's tough when you're an independent artist, so the delays are understandable when you're trying to pull the funds together and manage other little details like, oh I don't know, getting married. But in any case, I was glad to finally have Safe in a Crazy World in my hands, and I know she was aware of that as she autographed it and handed it over at a show last month.

Then, said show began, and while it was a thrill to hear the new songs dressed up with a full band (usually it's just her and a piano, and in the older days an acoustic guitar, sometimes with the accompaniment of a bass player, sometimes solo), there was one intruder in the mix: an iPod. The purpose of said iPod was to play back the programmed tracks that accompanied several of the new songs in their recorded version, despite the presence of live drums. That was when I had to put on my critic hat and start thinking, something ain't right here.

I believe I said something in my first review of Corrinne's music (and bless her heart, she stumbled across it and managed to get it linked from her website, causing the hits on that sucker to skyrocket) about how she made a special, intimate kind of music and had a gorgeous voice that some producer would probably like to snatch up and overproduce into oblivion. I prayed that such a thing would not actually happen to Corrinne if she got "discovered" one day. Now, the second album has come around, and who knows, maybe it's just the existence of a budget she didn't have before, but suddenly, the overproduction nightmare has begun. I mean, I'm not talking total robotic overproduction like your average Britney Spears record or anything, but on a lot of songs I'm hearing clunky sequencing and drum tracks that, instead of enhancing the songs, seem to reveal the limitations of organic beauty when translated into a digital world. And the worst part is, I don't have any bigwig producers to blame! (I've met her producer, who also happens to be her husband. Nice guy.) As unfortunate as it is, I have no choice but to believe that this is the kind of sound Corrinne was aiming for all along, and that the more stripped-down, folk-influenced stylings of most of the first album were something that she kind of outgrew in the process. (Corrinne, if you're reading this, say it ain't so!)

Now I'll scale back the melodrama a bit and tell you honestly that Safe in a Crazy World is not a bad record. As pop records go, I appreciate the do-it-yourself approach, where Corrinne writes all the songs and plays piano on every track. It's a fine instrument and she handles it well. A number of these tracks possess a few of the keen observations and thrilling "sweet spots" where the melodies hit unexpected but beautiful notes as Corrinne deviates from the standard chord progressions. Those are tell-tale signs of good songwriting, and when I notice them, I smile, delighting in the presence of someone who feels like an old friend. It's the unnatural moments where she ventures into blandly ordinary pop territory that I start to wonder what happened to my old friend over the years. I didn't mind the romantic mushiness of the first album, but it gets harder to bear when the lyrics tend toward cliches and the melodies tend toward the ordinary. It makes me wonder, is this what a singer with a good voice has to do to get noticed - start to blend in with the crowd? Corrinne's best moments here are the ones where she does not blend in, where she doesn't make apologies for the quirky side of her unbridled optimism, and where she doesn't have to borrow lyrics from Hallmark cards to make a point.

There, see, I did it again. I said something negative and I winced. It hurts to do this to an artist that I've loved and supported all these years (and I do continue to love and support her). I guess somewhere deep down inside, I have to remind myself that it's hopefully for her own good for me to offer constructive criticism and make my little vain attempt to keep her from getting sucked into the machine.

Anyway, on with the album review.

Little Superhero Girl
I'd give every kid a teddy bear
Turn starving people into millionaires
Break glass ceilings with dynamite...
The record starts with what is undoubtedly its best track, a whimsical tune that finds Corrinne wishing she could be a little more like the Powerpuff Girls. Laugh if you must, but the grown-up-kid musings of this song are easy for weary adults to relate to, I think. Over a playful bed of rolling piano and (unfortunately) drum programming, she lets out a list of random things that she'd like to do if she could cast off the shackles of the adult life that hold her back, ranging from realistic things like taking a trip to her native Singapore, to ridiculously amusing things like "turn[ing] bullies that terrorize into pink poodles that bark but don't bite." It's a mish-mash of observations and cute details that might be a bit saccharine for some, but it definitely brings out her strengths as a songwriter. The "Na na na na na na" chorus makes for a fun singalong, while the presence of real drums thankfully offer a bit of an organic anchor, making the song more like this album's version of a "Mr. Beasley". The great thing about it is that the song pulls back in the end, leaving just Corrinne and her piano to admit, "I feel like a little girl, trying to take on the whole wide world." She's had fun daydreaming, but she knows that what she really needs is to be saved from the seeming obligation to fix it all by herself.
Sweet spot: The bridge, where Corrinne slides into a different key and pleads, "Oh Little Superhero Girl, save me from myself."

Save Me
I had a dream that I was falling from the sky
At 90 miles an hour, I was bound to crash and die
But out of nowhere, you came and rescued me...
The piano starts off another upbeat song, one which is thematically connection to the last one, but which flips around the perspective, making Corrinne the damsel in distress instead of the superhero. It's a bit of an exercise for her since she's admitted not being used to ask others to save her, so I admire the attempt to explore both sides of the coin here. Unfortunately, despite a fairly tight arrangement of drums, piano, electric guitar, and even programming that doesn't seem too obtrusive, the song kind of tends toward generic pop hit territory. You know, the kind of thing that would be an obvious single if this record had been released by a big label. It's pleasant enough to listen to, but a chorus like "Save me from this place, Heaven knows I'm longing for you, my sweet embrace" doesn't exactly scream for attention in a sea of similarly-themed songs. The piano playing is what saves this one (pun intended) - the strength of this one is definitely its arrangement and performance.
Sweet spot: The piano and drum breakdown during the bridge, and the unexpected chord shift on the word "came" in the line "I thought I had it figured out, but you came and turned my whole world upside down", which leads us back into the chorus, kicked up by a key change.

Free
All this misunderstanding, all this anarchy
Six degrees of separation, sometimes it's so hard to see
That we are not alone in this, I need to believe...
More contemplative lyrics come drifting out immediately at the start of this track, reminding me of the tear-jerking "Fly Away" from Corrinne's first record. This ballad seeks a more spiritual perspective on the world's need to be saved, and we know Corrinne's no stranger to faith-based songwriting from the tracks "All that I Need" and "Journey" on the last album. It's a fairly compelling tune until the uninspired limp drumming comes in, weighing down a chorus that really sounds like it should be floating along on the sustained declaration, "I can be freeeeeee..." Corrinne vacillates between keen observations and cliches on this one, sometimes using compelling metaphors, but mixing and matching vague allusions to the world's troubles in a way that doesn't seem to lead to much of anything specific. Also, the line "I can be free from this place" seems redundant after she's just finished singing "Save me from this place" in the previous song. I guess I've heard too many CCM singers vocalizing things like "Break these chains" for it to have much of an effect on me here - there's a kernel of a very pretty song waiting to be let out from underneath the AC pop baggage of this one.
Sweet spot: Though the bridge is mostly just wordless vocalization and it seems to have been inserted just to stretch out the song, the way she leads into it with "Break these chains" lets a brief glimmer of light into an otherwise unremarkable arrangement.

Everything in Its Time
I often feel like I'm two steps behind
Somebody must have moved that finish line
There are a thousand reasons why I should give up
But I'm stubborn in the things I believe...
Ballad #2 is one that Corrinne has been playing live ever since those first few shows I caught in 2001 and 2002 - a simple reminder that to everything, there is a season (turn, turn, turn). It's one of those songs that I've always appreciated the wisdom of, but that never sat completely right with me, since once again, the lyrics go back and forth with mixed metaphors and mentions of cliche things like crystal balls when I think the time could have been spent on more astute observations of the things the world puts its faith in. I like the way she allows the chorus to be God's response to her - as plainspoken as the words "Hold on to patience and watch for the sign" may be, it's comforting. I'm just not sure how the phrase "The river runs, and the river hides" connects to it all - I get that it's a metaphor for the passage of time, but the metaphor is never addressed or expanded upon elsewhere in the song. It might benefit Corrinne to zoom in on such a metaphor and make it the framework for a song, trusting that we're smart enough to get the general lesson without it being explicitly spelled out - see Nichole Nordeman's "River God" for a good example that uses a similar metaphor.
Sweet spot: Another yummy bridge causes my ears to perk up in the middle of the song. I love it when Corrinne's songs have bridges that break from the verse and chorus melody, because they're almost always this attention-grabbing.

Safe in a Crazy World
Noise keeps chasing me, no matter where I go
Oh, and life likes pretending that it's on a TV show...
Something about this song is just vintage. Lyrically, it might be a pretty basic song, and OK, so the fact that we've had three ballads in a row might be making me a little drowsy. But Corrinne's playing in a more intimate setting, with soft strings, and no other studio busywork to muck things up. I like that. It allows the rhythm to be more fluid, pausing when it needs to in a sensitive spot, instead of being anchored to a dull rhythm (I normally like percussion and get frustrated when songs seem to only be loosely anchored to a rhythm, but that percussion has to be well played). This song is the more realistic reflection of what it's like to be "saved" by the embrace of a lover - not in the sense that this solves all your problems and washes away all your sins, but simply in the sense that it helps to counteract the bitterness and frustration that can keep a person grounded. It's a less naïve take on the notion of what it means for love to help a person fly, and one of the more lovely songs I've heard on the subject since Sara Groves recorded "Fly". It's not rocket science, but it's a pretty song that resonates a little more deeply than the other ballads on this project.
Sweet spot: This song has the market cornered on sweet spots. It borrows a trick from "All that I Need" that I loved so much by shifting the key down for the chorus, and then back up for the verse. The piano and Corrinne's voice also go into this twirling, romantic dance at the beginning of the bridge, temporarily tricking me into thinking I'm hearing something other than 4/4 even though I'm not. Delicious!

Let It Go
So we're waiting for the sky to fall
And we're buying brand new toys
But before we circle round once more
Can we lay down, just lay down this pride?
Slowly picking up this pace again is this mid-tempo song, which uses programming to its benefit to create more of a weary, far-off feeling as the verse comes floating in and Corrinne describes an old conflict that seems to be getting in the way of a couple's ability to communicate. It's a humble song about laying down one's pride and setting aside differences - a song which demands this of us but also acknowledges that it isn't easy. One phrase, phrased as only Corrinne can, seems to cut to the bone: "Don't waste all your emotion on this tit-for-tat machine". The song stumbles in a few places, most notably the second verse where the line "Lay down your pride" reveals an awkward non-rhyme even though it was set up as the resolution to a rhyme in the first verse. Also problematic is a chorus which starts strong but then just repeats "Let it go, let it be, let it go" at the end instead of offering any further insight. And while I can never get enough of that classically beautiful voice, the vocalization and repetition of "Let it go-whoa-whoa" near the end starts to try my patience just because there could have been more lyrics there instead.
Sweet spot: The whole song has a nice tone to it because it's a little more reflective and less major-key happy, but the word "pride" at the end of each verse seems to mark a strong melodic shift, effectively leading into a strong chorus melody.

Angel in Disguise
I met a good friend for lunch
And we had a delicious meal
But I forgot to bring my wallet
I felt like an imbecile...
While this song is one of those moments where you can't help but wonder if Corrinne's being a bit too much of a Girl Scout due to the overwhelming optimism of it all, I have to admit that it's kind of infectious, and as long as she keeps dishing out her lessons learned by way of whimsical observations, I'm willing to take 'em. This unapologetically upbeat song flutters along, detailing a day in which Corrinne wakes up feeling really blah, but it forced to consider that God is looking out for her even in the humdrum details, as evidenced by the kindness of a stranger giving her his jacket when it begins to rain, or a friend offering to spot her for lunch when she forgets her wallet. She gets to be an angel in turn when she in turn offers food to a homeless man (and at this point I'm thinking, this woman clearly does not live in the same L.A. that I do, but anyway). I think it's kind of amusing that despite these matter-of-fact descriptions, she describes these people putting on their halos and starting to fly away, as if that actually literally happened. Through Corrinne's eyes, it's entirely possible to believe that it really did happen that way. Maybe the moral lesson is stated way too obviously here - we get that she's finding miracles in the ordinary, and such is the gift of many good songwriters, but it kind of diminishes the beauty of it all when she has to spell out the lesson for us. I think we'd get it even without the chorus telling us to "Take a look at the ordinary".
Sweet spot: Once again, the bridge. Where the melody drops down and majestically rises back up again: "Don't try to hide away from me, I know... you're... by... my... side."

If I Kissed You
What would Michelangelo say
Would he still have sculpted David
Would we be immortalized in clay
Would the poets write of love like ours
Would John Donne have his say...
This was probably my most anticipated of the new songs, next to "Little Superhero Girl", and I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed with this one. Corrinne has given it more of a free-spirited folk/rock arrangement, which is fun because a muted acoustic guitar leads the verses and it's nice to hear one of those again, so no complaints about the music or the production. It's a lot like this album's version of "Something About You" in both its arrangement and its whimsical, romantic outlook, which ain't a bad thing. Corrinne is wondering, if she kissed that special guy, would history rewrite itself and would all sorts of physically impossible things happen. Totally ludicrous, but then, that's the kind of thing that happens in your mind when you experience something like that. She's got a keen sense of the utterly illogical nature of falling in love, and I think that's great. The big problem here is that, despite the effort of the big drums and guitars and a fun little instrumental break to distract me, it's still painfully obvious that she skimped on lyrics here. We get a wonderfully creative verse, a chorus that defiantly states that she's going to be bold and get her kiss, then a break, then the chorus again, and then a last verse. The potential for more whimsical fun in the form of subsequent verses is lost, and while the last verse is a hilarious one (I laughed every time I heard it, from way back at that first concert four years ago), it kind of comes off in a plainspoken, polished way that kind of dulls the "Did she just say what I think she just said?" effect of it. It's like we got half of a really awesome song or something.
Sweet spot: The melody is a fairly typical sunny pop tune on this one, so no melodic surprises to speak of, though my heart does flutter a little bit when the chorus gushes "You could be one in a million."

The Birthday Song
Trees have rings and thicker branches
Kids shoes grow a little tighter
Every year we're getting closer to who we're gonna be...
This brief ballad (just two verses and a chorus repeated twice) is, sadly, the first of Corrinne's songs that has done absolutely nothing for me. It sounds like a personal song written for a special event that didn't quite manage to translate itself into something universal. There are some nice enough analogies about aging gracefully and not being ashamed of one's age here, but the song has that overwhelming feeling of being borrowed from, well, a birthday card. I mean, walk through a Hallmark store and read an assortment of cards (the non-sarcastic ones, anyway) and you'll basically find just about every phrase in this song. That may well have been intentional on Corrinne's part, but I've always found most birthday card sentiments to be rather hollow and too generic to mean much of anything personal (which is why I always go for the funny ones when I actually break down and buy a card for someone). If she had taken the more whimsical approach and written a song out of the funny birthday cards, or put the phrases together in more of an ironic way, that might've stirred up a little interest. As it is, the melody to this one honestly bores me, the drumming basically flatlines, and the chorus turns out to be a real point by stringing together cliches without even bothering to rhyme them.
Sweet spot: I will admit that the phrase "Such a joy in my life" marks a nice melodic turn as the chords seem to shift from major to minor and then back again. But that isn't nearly enough to save the song.

Every Beat of My Heart
I wish that time could be replayed
I'd keep you here with me every day
They say that love is letting go
I hope that you find your way...
Another mini-ballad wraps up the record - it's like a lullaby of sorts, and the drumming is kept sparse to reflect that sentiment. In some ways, it's a song that says goodbye to someone - perhaps a farewell to the mother who said goodbye in "Fly Away". I just feel a lot less attached to this one because who or what it's about isn't clear from context (I don't mind having to do a little work to figure that out, but the song really could be about anyone or anything that watches over you). The cliche "I am watching over every beat of your heart" doesn't help matters much, and like the previous song, it almost seems to be over before it really gets going. It's unfortunate that the album has to end with its two blandest songs - I honestly feel like these could have used a bit more refining in the songwriting and arranging departments, and held off until a future recording to leave room for unreleased gems like the delicious "Twirl My Heartstrings" to finally see the light of day.
Sweet spot: The first line of the chorus kind of hits some pretty notes, but again, I'm not terribly captivated by the overall melody.

Free (Radio Edit)
A brief bit of silence separates the album proper from its listed bonus track, which clearly reveals Corrinne's hope of getting a song on the radio. The original "Free" may not have been one of my favorites, but it was pleasant enough and I don't see why she would have to cater to the impatience of radio by including an identical recording with its bridge cut out. I mean, record a song where the entire five minutes is worth hearing, and then it won't need to be whittled down to make a single, right? I feel like no value is added to the record by having this here - at least when she did an acoustic take on "Mr. Beasley" on her last record, I enjoyed hearing it in a more stripped-down fashion. Perhaps it would have been better to include an acoustic arrangement of this song instead - she did mention that she originally wrote it on her guitar while experimenting with open chords, and I bet that would actually strengthen the song a bit.

I wish I didn't have to be such a downer about those last few tracks, but hey, I'm still glad to have six or seven of these songs in my hands. This might be an album that you'll have to see Corrinne live to fully appreciate - taken on its own as one pop singer's voice among many, this one's gonna have a tough time standing out aside from the more whimsical tracks like "Little Superhero Girl". New fans who are enchanted by the voice and the songwriting skills should definitely start with Corrinne's self-titled record (with the black-and-white cover; it's known as Fly Away in some places), and then supplement that CD with this one if you just can't get enough of her.

I'm hoping that Corrinne remembers to emphasize what's different about her when she gets around to recording her third record. If she never brings back the acoustic stuff, well, that's a matter of aesthetic preference and she doesn't have to conform to my bias in that department. I just hope she doesn't settle for writing pop songs that way everyone else writes pop songs. A voice can only get you places for so long, and then today's fickle public will just look for the next pretty voice. Having a unique musical and lyrical personality is where you draw in the true fans. In my opinion, those are the things that will keep the little superhero girl flying.

ALBUM WORTH:
Little Superhero Girl $1.50
Save Me $1
Free $1
Everything in Its Time $.50
Safe in a Crazy World $1
Let It Go $1.50
Angel in Disguise $1
If I Kissed You $1
The Birthday Song $0
Every Beat of My Heart $0
Free (Radio Edit) $0
TOTAL: $8.50

Website: http://www.corrinnemay.com

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Romancing