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Album: Kaleidoscope Heart
Out: September 7th, 2010
Sara Bareilles had a really good year in 2008. She had, easily, the biggest song of the year with Love Song, from her brilliant first record Little Voice.
I'm pretty sure her record company, Epic Records, did not expect the out of the box success of Bareilles. Sara is an interesting artist to dissect. She is everywhere. She pops up in the background of every one of your favorite television shows or movies. She's on at the supermarket while your doing your weekly grocery shopping. She's on at the hair salon while your getting your bi-monthly hair cut. She's even on the radio every once and a while.
But I'd gather most of the population has no idea what she looks like.
She's the perfect mainstream artist. Because she's not overkill.
I would bet your Shazam on your phone has tagged more Sara Bareilles songs than anything, because you ask yourself in all the aforementioned situations, "Who is this? I like this song."
In Kaleidoscope Heart, Bareilles' major label sophomore offering, she serves up exactly what you want. And this, you can't be angry at her for. If it ain't broke don't fix it.
An a capella choir of Sara Bareilles' open the record with a short intro of what she plans to accomplish with this album. I like that. A woman with a purpose. By definition, a kaleidoscope is a continually changing pattern of shapes and colors. This LP definitely fits that description, but it has lost a tiny bit of intensity that Little Voice possessed.
There are still TV background gems, and movie soundtrack masterpieces awaiting on this CD though. There is a little bit of daring edge, and a lot of charisma that made Bareilles a star in the first place.
Uncharted gets the party started with a bang. With strong relateable lyrical content, this is exactly what we've come to expect from Sara. You've felt this way before in your life, and you'll know exactly what she's talking about. The bouncy feel gives it a Top 40 worthy single potential. This song boasts the lyrics I wish I had written; Compare, where you are to where you wanna be, and you get, no where.
Gonna Get Over You is a further look into Sara's desire to change it up and throw it in your face a little. This is a fun ride back to the days of 1950's pop rock jams you heard on Big Band type shows. The fun, hyper-active piano line, sits with the quick step of lyrics going through a break-up with a bad lover.
In sticking with the ever changing theme, she jumps the upbeat ship, and hits us hard with the intense ballad, Hold My Heart. A harrowing look into someones mind that's having an emotional romantically charged break down. In my life, I've only let two people truly hold my heart, and this captures the exact moment that both of them dropped it. The one thing Sara Bareilles possesses that a lot of young pop singers don't is extreme relateability. By now you've all heard King of Anything, so you all know what I'm talking about. You've been there. You sing along with it, and stage its musicality in your head.
The Light, is the wedding song you'll be hearing everywhere, which takes that moment you look into your partner's eyes and know that you'll follow them wherever they go. True love, personified.
Sara falls a little short with Basket Case, a daring delve into piano-less accompaniment, and her lower register. Listenable, but not memorable. Much like the predictable Say You're Sorry earlier in the record.
With Let The Rain, Sara brings it back to where she started on Little Voice. A strong piano driven chorus, with a soaring chorus, a huge string section, and something you've never heard before. This song belongs in the end of the movie Eat, Pray, Love.
Two more forgettable songs with Machine Gun, though I'm sure you know a guy just like this, and Not Alone.
But then she hits you. Exactly where she always gets you. Right in the heart. Right in the psych. Breathe Again is the ballad of the century. Every one's been through a break up. Everyone knows that exact moment where you realize you're ready to move on, its now just the process of moving on. Bareilles captures that moment of clarity with heavy honesty. He's the air that I'd kill to breathe. Holds my life, in his hands. Still I'm searching for something. Out of breath, I am left, hoping someday. I will breathe again. Hitting every moment of painful self-realization into a meticulous and painful ballad. With a string section that will give you chills all over you body, this is the song that makes Sara Bareilles one of the best song writers of our generation. Worth the whole purchase of the CD.
She finally brings her kaleidoscope journey to an end with a softer and lighter ballad called Bluebird. A moment of clarity before she lets you go. A perfect way to close a sophomore chapter.
Somewhere in the middle of the journey, Sara's kaleidoscope stopped turning, and she chose to jump back into her old form from Little Voice, but no one here will reprimand her for that.
Bottom line: Stumbles a little for a sophomore effort, but Bareilles has plenty of years ahead of her to impress.
Must hear song(s): Uncharted, Gonna Get Over You, Breathe Again
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