Album Name: I Won’t Pretend
Artist: Monique Berry
Year/Label: 2008 / Independent
Review by Amy Lotsberg Producer of Collected Sounds
I own Monique Berry’s previous self-titled CD. I actually purchased it on a CDBaby buying frenzy one time (you know, those $5 sales get me every time!). I remember liking it, but not being blown away by it. Perhaps it was because I received 10 CDs in one day and only the really unique and different ones stood out to me.
But that was years ago, and Monique Berry has grown as an artist, and also I’m probably giving this one more ear time than the previous one.
She has a lovely voice. It’s strong and sweet at the same time.
She makes nice use of backing vocals. They are there to enhance as opposed to overshadow (like some I’ve heard recently…don’t go looking for the review of that one, I didn’t post it).
The songwriting is good, the melodies interesting, but I can’t honestly say it’s terribly unique. These songs kind of just wash over me. They are not terribly distinctive from one another, or from others of the same genre for that matter. But they’re nice.
Maybe it’s just not grabbing me, this could be one I take out again months later and fall in love with. It’s happened before! This is one case where I’m going to say, ‘It’s not you, it’s me’ and I really mean it. I can’t find one bad thing about this record; I’m just not wildly excited about it.
Track Listing
Listen to track samples
1. I Won’t Pretend
2. I Can’t Believe
3. Feel the Fire
4. I’ll Be Just Fine
5. Lincoln Street
6. Turn Around
7. When the Rain Falls
8. If I Stumbled
9. Take Me Away
10. Our Very Last Goodbye
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