Album Review: Beautiful Distraction by Marianne Keith

Album Name: Beautiful Distraction
Artist: Marianne Keith
Year/Label: 2007 / Independent

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Review by Amy Lotsberg Producer of Collected Sounds

First off, I was leery of this record because the one sheet that came with it lists, as one of the artists that inspires her, “Sarah McLaughlan”. This is one of my pet peeves. If you are going to compare yourself (or even mention) a goddess (or anyone for that matter) please spell her name right! I blame the publicist, but still, the artist should be proofing things that are going out to the public. I’ve seen this too many times to not mention it. I noticed that on the artists’ MySpace page it’s spelled correctly so I that’s good! Now throw away all those one sheets with the error!

Let’s get down to the music… I think Marianne Keith is definitely talented. She has a good voice (reminiscent of Vanessa Carlton) and she plays piano well. The songs are well written albeit too mainstream for me, personally. But then again, I am hard to please in that way. They are very produced and while I appreciate all the hard work that goes into polishing a record, I sometimes like a little rawness.

But there are a nice variety of songs here, some ballads some more energetic, all good for the younger crowd (I am sure I am not her demographic as it appears she is in her very early 20s). I can see her being popular with the same group that likes Anna Nalick, Bonnie McKee, and other young musicians.

Her sound is very young, which stands to reason, I think it’s perfect for her age. But it will be interested to see how she matures as an artist. She’s talented indeed.

*The cover art on my copy was different (and in my opinion, better) than the one you’ll see on CDBaby. The one I got makes it look like a cool indie release. Artsy without being too pretentious. The one on CDBaby looks like a record companies way of making her mainstream. After looking at her site, I see that the one I have is a second pressing. I like this much better. Good move.

Here’s the CDBaby one, just so you know you’re getting the right one:

Posted on December 26, 2007

Track Listing
Listen to track samples while you read
1 Beautiful Distraction
2 The Angry Song
3 Happy Girl
4 Too Late
5 Maybe Next Time
6 Something Real
7 Kiss Me in the Rain
8 That’s Just How Love Goes
9 Make You Mine
10 On the Line
11 Sideways Rain
12 I’m Not the Girl for You*

[Marianne Keith Official Site]

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