Michelle Branch gets in tune with fans

by Joshua Maloni
Lewiston Porter Sentinel,
April 24, 2004

In music, as in life, breaking up is hard to do.

There’s jealousy, envy, comparisons and all sorts of confused emotions. On her second album, “Hotel Paper,” Michelle Branch sings of broken relationships. For her fans, however, another sort of separation arose with the album’s release.

You see, Branch’s “The Spirit Room,” circa 2001, was a masterfully crafted album. It sold more than 2.5 million copies, and earned Branch, 20, Grammy Award recognition. Remarkably, Branch began work on the album – singing, playing guitar and writing her own songs – when she was 14.

Tracks like “Everywhere,” “If You Want To” and “You Get Me” were, it has to be said, catchy. Yet, they were so good, it didn’t seem right to lump them in with the year’s hard-to-erase-because-they’re-so-overplayed peppy tunes, including fading boy-bands, pretend hip-hoppers and artists whose names you can’t remember.

But, therein was the problem. Branch’s work was so good, it created a potential barrier to her follow-up. How could her sophomore album, no matter how good, more mature or fresh for that matter, live up to “The Spirit Room?” How would fans pry themselves away from her first fruits?

With so many artists breaking in to the music business, finding success, and then failing to capitalize on follow-up projects, how could Branch make people care about her music a second time?

Would she use her musical prowess? Sure. In “Love Me Like That,” a duet with Sheryl Crow, Branch proves she’s above average, both vocally and with her strumming. Would she use sexuality? Yes, actually. The once fashionably apathetic Branch girly-fied her image with more revealing photo shoots and more attention to designers. But there’s something more, something Branch does on a higher level than her peers: Above all, Branch, if nothing else, is emotional in her singing, and outside of talent – which the self-taught guitarist isn’t lacking – emotion is what makes music good music.

From the first single, “Are You Happy Now?” Michelle Branch fans knew that it would be OK to put “The Spirit Room” away for a while and try something new, something worthwhile. Instead of regressing, Branch reaches even higher levels of emotional connection with listeners on "Hotel Paper."

The media’s knock on Branch is that she writes lyrics beyond her years. That’s just not so. In fact, her romantically-longing lyrics are so compelling, sometimes you feel a need to revert back to high school to fully appreciate them.

In fact, her ever-increasing talent is oft unappreciated. With so many female artists emerging in the past few years, talented and not, Branch has had to share the limelight with the likes of Vanessa Carlton, Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Pink and the three-headed popster, Jessica Aguilera-Spears.

“The Spirit Room” was an album for the ages. But, like most first loves, it served more as a primer for better things to come. With “Hotel Paper,” Michelle Branch proves she’s an artist worthy of our respect and fit to serenade the car ride home.

Michelle Branch headlines the all-day Virgin College Mega Tour stop Friday at Niagara University. For more information visit www.niagara.edu.