Brave And Crazy - Melissa Etheridge

Advantages: Original. Excellent debut from Etheridge. Talented vocal and instrumental work.
Disadvantages: The Gawd-awful liner notes! AAH!

...Etheridge, a rock guitarist and singer who was brand new to the scene and enjoying a fair amount of success with her debut album - obviously the self-titled one that I am reviewing here. Eventually Mom went out and purchased the cassette. Oh yes, the days before the simplicity and convenience of compact discs! It cost her something like seven dollars, which would be only God knows how many pounds in UK currency. (If anybody knows the conversion formula, if one exists, I would LOVE to know about it! This whole UK currency thing confuses me to no end.) Melissa Etheridge launched one hell of a solid record as her introduction to the world. It is a simple recording - ten tracks of her very own songs, with very basic liner notes and cover art. Unfortunately, the simplicity of the liner notes means that all lyrics were crammed into... Read review

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Advantages: Advantages? There are none!
Disadvantages: Ack! Read the review!

...If I could summarize Melissa Etheridge's "Breakdown" in just one sentence, it would be the following: "This record flipping SUCKS!" Oh wow. First I sing the praises of Melissa Etheridge, then I say that one of her most recent recordings just plain stinks? Am I on drugs? Nope! "Breakdown" is as rotten as three-week-old tomatoes, ladies and gentlemen! Melissa Etheridge had a great start. Her debut, and the two albums that followed it, were nothing short of outstanding. Brilliant and original, she ensured that her raw emotions and truthful messages were captured to the fullest extent possible. She could play guitar like no other, with her very own blend of acoustic and electric styles that made for formidable and slightly-challenging entertainment for the listener. Her music was worth buying, and listening to several... Read review

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Advantages: The first few songs are pretty good.
Disadvantages: The rest is a bunch of crap that she wrote and recorded solely for the Grammy Award she got from it. Bah!

...chat with the rock goddess, apparently) participate in. The sad thing is, before the release of this particular CD I thought Melissa Etheridge was pretty darned cool. Since this is THE record that marked the start of her "popular musical goddess" status, I can't help but feel it is more of a carbon-copied pile of rubbish than anything else. She set out to become famous for her music, and left the passionate and interesting songs behind in order to do so. She did, however, get a Grammy for this album, so I guess it was worth it to her in the end. Better albums would have to be: Melissa Etheridge; Never Enough; Brave And Crazy; Unplugged + More (an illegal bootleg that's easy to find on the Internet). Note: I didn't recommend this to potential buyers because that rating is based on regular retail price - which I would... Read review

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