Name: Vonda Shepard
Release: From the Sun
Label: PanShot Records
Year: 2008
Rating: 3/5
Wow, it seemed as though Ally McBeal’s star singer had been keeping a low profile, but in fact she’s been releasing albums like it’s going out of fashion. She’s done several since her Ally days, and her most recent, released in 2008, is called ‘From The Sun’. It’s something of a shame that she became famous for singing covers, because she’s a very competent songwriter in her own right, and her new album demonstrates just that.
Shepard scorns the whole pop-drivel scene, and it’s clear that she takes her lyrics seriously. Indeed, her works are less songs than sagas, telling full emotional stories and the hell with conventional rhyming. In terms of her independent lyricism, she doesn’t actually quite pull it off; there are some very odd word choices that wouldn’t be out of place in a Victorian novel which has a license to waffle.
But this is undeniably listenable music – quite soft and melodic with Shepard’s trademark piano chiming gently in the background. Dinnertime music, maybe, or first date music. Possibly bath-time music, at a push, if you had a book to read at the same time. It will be interesting to see if Shepard can work her way back up to her height of popularity – or beyond – without the once-a-week prime-time publicity. Sadly, probably not.
– Sophie Carville
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