Music The Awakening
Digital Life Average Rating:

Rating: - GREAT JOB MELISSA!
I just listened to it from start to finished and LOVED it! Keep it up. Can't wait to see you in concert!

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Rating: - I'd plug in my guitar and I'd try to sing the truth
Melissa Etheridge's first complete album since overcoming cancer is one heavy affair. It is direct, forceful and straightforward, reflecting -- as she puts it in the liner notes -- a personal "Awakening." The whole CD is played out as an old fashioned concept album, meant to be listened to as a piece. Little interludes connect songs, there's a prologue ("All There Is"), reflections of the past ("An Unexpected Rain") and the confrontations of the present (the anti-war "Imagine That").

While they are a fair distance apart, Melissa's CD reminds me of Marc Cohn's Join the Parade, where each artist returned from a life changing near-tragedy (in Cohn's case, getting shot in the head by a carjacker) with a new found appreciation for living. When Cohn's politics bit down on Katrina and the administration's paltry response, Melissa takes aim at ignorance and intolerance the same administration fosters. The most powerful song here, "The Kingdom of Heaven" is a direct assault on idiots like Fred Phelps, comparing them to jihadis who strap on the suicide belts while hating in the name of a god. When she croons (in "California") 'I am ALMOST free,' it is just as much a political statement as it is an affirmation of survival from the cancers.

The forthrightness of "The Awakening" is also what hinders it. With only 12 proper songs here, the sameness of some of the songs gets tedious at times. And a couple more hooky rockers like "Threesome" or "Message to Myself" might have given the CD a little more kick. It may be her most personal CD, but it lacks the pumping of her best work (Yes I Am and Melissa Etheridge). But then again, the soaring finale of "The Awakening: What Happens Tomorrow" may just bring a tear to your eye. A touch folksier and mellow than her albums prior, "The Awakening" brims with the subtle power of rediscovery, and is all the better for it.

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Rating: - Melissa
Love Love Love One of Melissa's Best. Welcome back Melissa I missed you. Your CD is very uplifting to me.

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Rating: - The Awakening
Quite a departure from her usual style of music but i found it very enjoyable. A pleasure to listen.