Customer Reviews

Victoria Day

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If this were a book of poetry, it would be worth the price. If it was just a musical arrangement, with no words like a movie soundtrack, it would stand alone with dignity.

But in addition, Melissa has one of those magical voices that can slide gracefully from soft and delicate to hard and fast. And that's a quality that separates her from most singers, and one reason why I admired Linda Ronstadt voice in the 70's and 80's. Its often Melissa on background vocals too, and yes indeed, she can make some pretty sweet harmonies with just herself.

So we have a sensitive lyricist with a chameleon-like voice. These alone satisfy me enough to buy. But Melissa had a secret weapon. It's the amazing husband/musician/producer, Luke Doucet. My god, they must have poured their hearts out on these flawless arrangements, cause it's a very, very, carefully crafted album. And like all my favorite stuff, it kinda creeps around in the shadows like a stalker at first, kinda percolates down into my pores like a nicotine patch, almost unnoticed, and mesmerizing me until I'm a hopeless addict.

Victoria Day is yet another solid performance for Melissa. I have her entire catalog, along with the amazing music of Luke Doucet and his White Falcon Band, ripped onto a single MP3 cd that goes round in my car as my car takes me on my daily rounds. As Melissa & Luke often perform on each others albums, my "compilation" cd plays like one very extended play of one fantastic band. My daughter, Chloe likes to paint and sculpt with it playing on the stereo. Yup, got her hooked too!

My great thanks to Sarah Mclachlan for introducing Melissa McClelland's music to me, and to Melissa for being so wonderfully Melissa.

(Don't let the title of my review fool you, I prefer change in musicians.)

I must admit- I have VERY mixed feelings toward this new release from McClelland. After five full listens I still don't know what to think about this album really.

I got into Melissa through a Jesse Cook song, and I was impressed by Thumbelina's One Night Stand, because of its very mellow and bluesy sound. When I saw the cover-art for this album, it looked suspiciously what the cover of Thumbelina's One Night Stand would look like if it had Melissa on the cover. I did not let the cover fool me though because I was looking forward to this album immensely. In short it was a solid album but definitely not great.

A GIRL CAN HOPE- Great starter to the album. Very Bluesy.

GLENRIO- Sort of country-esque song. Not bad, but it seems to drag a lot.

SEGOVIA- Excellent song, great strings and a very beautiful arrangement. May just be the best song on here.

GOD LOVES ME- Bland song. This is not how Melissa should be writing. The song drags a lot and hardly goes anywhere.

VICTORIA DAY- These songs (April Showers and May Flowers) are both very interesting tracks, but I don't see why they can't be one big song, despite May Flowers being at a faster pace. Seems like they were trying to make the album longer by splitting it in two.

I BLAME YOU- Funny song, very tongue-in-cheek and brilliant. Love it.

CRY ON MY SHOULDER- This strange track suffers from being not even remotely interesting. Also Melissa sounds bored on this one. Could easily be a B-side.

WHEN THE LIGHTS WENT OFF IN HOGTOWN- Suffers from the same problem that Cry On My Shoulder does.

SEASONED LOVERS- A great song, very reminiscent of Thumbelina's One Night Stand.

BRAKE and MONEY SHOT are both decent tracks, but really seem too filler-ish.

Overall this is not a bad album. It has some great tracks, but some not very good tracks. This really should be called "Thumbelina's One Night Stand 2.0".