Customer Reviews

Breaking the Habit

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From the ominous opening strains of "Again" to the plaintive longing of the closing track "Today", Ms. McMeikan has crafted a beautifully compelling debut filled with brutally honest lyrics and lush yet uncluttered orchestration. Joanna's skill as both composer and singer shine thru on every track as each haunting melody embraces the pain, darkness, love, loss and redemption of the human experience and beyond. Her angelic voice rises and swirls with emotion, leaving no doubt that every word and every note come from the only place that matters... the heart.

From the foreboding drums that open "Again" to the final melancholy piano chords of "Today," we accompany singer-songwriter Joanna McMeikan on an intimate journey through themes of bitterness, disappointment, obsession, and betrayal in her first, and very remarkable, solo album "Breaking the Habit."

An emotional adventuress and heartbreakingly vulnerable storyteller, McMeikan sings of being replaced by a trophy girl in "Galatea," plays the "other woman" trapped by her desires in "Lover of Mine," experiences compelling disillusionment in "Out of Mind," and satirically spoofs her prozac "highs" in "Rainbow." Each song is individually unique and compelling.

"Past Unconditional" is my favorite, with its exotic rhythms, great brass arrangements, spoken lyrics, and complex, intriguing themes of past lives and former loves.

Although the life lessons contained here are hard-learned, McMeikan's solid musicianship, emotional honesty, eloquent multi-layered lyrics, lovely voice, and versatile, spot-on performances transform her melancholy themes into something eloquent, engaging, and yes, even hopeful. We trust that broken heart and troubled mind will be healed by the sheer beauty of her heroic quest as narrated in this courageous and extraordinary debut album.

This is really exciting new music. Fascinating grooves plus heartstoppingly beautiful ballads. Addictive melodies develop alongside meaningful words. "Today" and "January Snow" just make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck! This is songwriting and production at its very best.

this is one of the albums that ought to permanently hovver around your shortlist. it creates, in me, a globe of emotions from the plain perfection of shivers down the spine when joanna's ideas and voice combine to make moments on this cut that dwarf mountains - to the dark, shadowy fear that she, surely, can't pull it out of the hat like this ever again. i was lucky enough to be hand-picked by joanna to design the sleeve and website for her album... and it leads me to thinking about how i would re-design her now that i know each song inside-out. at first i thought i'd try to wander through her perculiar head and include a graphic representation of each facet of her private hell/heaven... but now i know that all i'd do is say 'you have to find someone else to do this, i can't do you justice'. from the excitable account of (self?) let-down that powers the chorus of 'again' in which she makes her impossibilities with love so much less dreary and so much more exclusive than everyone else's, to the borrowed glad-rags of 'past unconditional' where she reaches a glowing and understanding review of what it is to land on this planet as an artist, worthy even of summing up her own talents, she paints much more than just a rainbow. 'today' is for fantasy... listen to it loud through headphones and feel yourself kick deep autumn leaves through a silent forest, to a white, marble room where a girl in a long, dark dress sits at a piano and sings for miles and miles to reach (and over-take) the power of a pain gone by, to which she is now numb. funny that, in spite of my admiration and good wishes for joanna, i don't care whether this album makes it or not. she's already felt the feelings and created the creature - by now she'll be elsewhere... in dreams again.

You must hear this album if you like Dido, Katie Melua or just like good music. Joanna has an incredible way with a melody - all the songs are instantly accessible, but like the lyrics, the tunes have an edge and a bittersweet twist. The extremely catchy "Merry-Go-Round" will strike a chord with anyone who's ever felt "middle-aged at twenty-five" and longed to wake up in a gutter again; "Rainbow" is a sweetly ironic hymn to the joys of Prozac; "Galatea" blasts a lover who chooses a "china doll" over an inspiring, complicated woman. The album ends with the mature, complex "Today", which sadly asserts that "they say that in time we'll be saved - it's a lie - all we have is today." The intelligent lyrics and haunting melodies, combined with Joanna's astonishing voice - wispy one minute, belting rock-chick the next - add up to an unforgettable album. Check out this unique new artist.