Comments for Shepard, Vonda, It's Good, Eve

"You told me to be what it is that I was/no matter what all of the businessmen said." So sings Vonda Shepard on her most recent release, "It`s Good, Eve." And she takes the advice. Her self-titled debut was a slick pop effort; one imagines that if videos were made for any of the songs, they would feature Vonda in pretty, flowered dresses, dancing around as she`s pursued by a handsome male model. Her second effort, "The Radical Light," tried to wear both pop and meaningful-songwriter hats side by side, but ended up lacking clarity and focus. With her third release (tellingly, produced by herself with Michael Landau) Vonda clearly decided to make an album that represented nothing but the woman and artist she truly is, and as a result created one of the most impressive pop/rock albums of 1996. Leaving conventional pop production behind, she lets her beautiful melodies and eloquent lyrics (not to mention her sweet and distinctive voice) stand on their own in sparse, acoustic arrangements for many songs. The effect is winning on gems such as "A Lucky Life," "Long Term Boyfriend," and "Every Now and Then." On the latter tune she sings, "He says everyone is crazy/and no one knows how to live/he takes another drink of whiskey/and says no one knows to give", displaying for all the world to see that this is no ordinary pop songwriter. Another terrific lyric is featured on the hypnotic "Like a Hemisphere," where Vonda sings, "I don`t want to go through this life just getting by/I want to fly/I don`t want to go through this life not asking why/I need to know why we are here/we are here together now/I don`t want to go through this life just to die." In the same song she also asks the heartwrenching question, "Why can`t we see in ourselves/all the beauty we see in everybody else?" For all the current female singer/songwriters claiming Joni Mitchell as a major influence, Vonda comes closest to capturing her inspired, intelligent, and profound takes on life. But acoustic arrangements aren`t the beginning and end of "Eve." When Vonda decides to put more drive in the production, it`s impossible to not want to go along for the ride. "Naivete" has a wonderfully smooth yet strong rock quality; the persistent strumming of guitars and clean processing of the drums give this song an 80-miles-an-hour, windows down, music UP appeal. Having tried it out myself on the highway, I highly recommend the effect. Then there`s "This Steady Train," featuring Jackson Browne on backing vocals, and the only way to accurately describe this track are the words "perfectly produced rock." Watch for an interesting bridge in the middle and repeated at the end. "The Wildest Times of the World" has a smooth and driving flow to it, along with more wonderful lyrics: "I have fallen/I have stood up/I`ve had the patience of a tree" and "Ain`t it funny how you`re walking through life and it turns on a dime/I was missing you crazy/baby are you really mine?" are just a couple of the cool phrases from Vonda`s pen. But the album`s hands-down masterpiece is "Grain of Sand," a song that proves there is no justice in modern music by the fact that it wasn`t a single at all, let alone the huge hit single it deserved to be. Using a unique brush effect on drums and a mystical sitar on the chorus, "Grain of Sand" is, without a doubt, Vonda`s finest song to date. The chorus has an incredibly unique and unforgettable vocal hook, and more great lyrics ("I feel like I`m gaining my soul/while I`m losing my mind") are again featured alongside a stellar vocal performance: at once demure and soft, then instantly strong and forceful, appropriate and tasteful the whole way through. This is a song that deserves to be played many, many, times, and at very high decibels (trust me, I`ve done it). Mediocre moments on "It`s Good Eve" are rare. "Mischief & Control" blends just a little too much; not only does it reprise the cool vocal hook from "Grain of Sand" in reverb, but the overall melody and production are a little too similar to everything else to stand out. And "Serious Richard," though containing the great lyric used at the start of this review, is produced beautifully enough but in the end just isn`t as striking as the other pieces. But in the face of the rest of the material, these less-than-perfect moments barely register. Along with Sheryl Crow`s self-titled sophomore effort and Sting`s "Mercury Falling," Vonda has recorded one of the best pop/rock albums of 1996. Unfortunately, she apparently won`t be recieving the hit singles, multi-platiunum singles and Grammy awards that lesser female singer/songwriters in the same vein are recieving, but from an artistic standpoint, Vonda Shepard and "It`s Good, Eve" rise to the top of the pack. A soaringly triumphant album from an intensely gifted artist.