Michelle Lewis
Album: The Parts Of Us That Still Remain
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 10
Website: http://michellelewismusic.com

"The Parts Of Us That Remain" sees Michelle Lewis having brought out her second full length album, on the back of "This Time Around" back in 2004 and a scattering of EPs in the meantime. It's also an album that sees her establishing a songwriting partnership with Robby Hecht, though by far the majority of the album comes from her own pen. Her long time producer Anthony J. Resta once again does the duties behind the desk.

As implied by the involvement of Hecht, Lewis has continued to take her music further down the country road and away from the more folky sound of her home city of Boston, where she honed her songwriting skills at the prestigious Berklee College Of Music.

Lewis is a songwriter that seems to be driven more by emotion with most of the material on the album being driven by the human condition, predominantly the acts of falling in and out of love. Sometimes this is done on an epic scale, "Just Like A Movie", being a very full song, at other times more sparsely with songs like "Run, Run, Run" the track that follows immediately after, but apart from scale, for me, this is an album that lacks any real depth, there's insufficient contrast that would help to make this an essential album.

That's not to say it's a bad album, whilst not pushing any boundaries it would be harsh to judge any of the songs as filler, as proven by the old trick of sticking it on random play and seeing at what point it loses me, normally seven or so tracks in.

I could hear almost any given track as a single suitable for Southern state radio stations, but for as an album, it doesn't quite work, it needs a bit of variety, something to break up the lines.

Neil King