Misty Miller - The Whole Family Is Worried (Album Review)
Tuesday, 19 April 2016
Written by Jennifer Geddes
The Misty Miller who first appeared five years ago, fresh-faced and folky, is no more. ‘The Whole Family Is Worried’, her new album, is filled with rock tunes about sleeping around and cab rides home after a night on the town.
The songs, plucked from the last few years of the now 21-year-old Miller’s life, build a good picture of teen angst. “I'm so happy today, look how wide my smile is,” she spits with appropriate sarcasm on the opener, Happy, but by the time Best Friend closes proceedings she’s asking: “Are you awake? It’s time to get up now.” Miller conveys such deep vulnerability, the vocal equivalent of puppy dog eyes, that it digs below the surface of any posturing.
She is a captivating performer, with great control of her vocal range, and every word here is imbued with its own specific emotion, making her an impressive storyteller. When she sings “blood and glitter” on Taxi Cab, you can picture the broken heels and scraped knees of a drunken fall.
Miller’s honest perspective on being a young woman is also refreshing. On Next To You, she sings of washing her hair and shaving her legs as a chore she grudgingly does out of love. Later on she notes: “You wouldn't care if I moved, I'm just a body to you.”
She jumps around musically, hopping from power-pop to blues, indie to rock ‘n’ roll, without paying too much attention to the instrumentation. Her mode of expression isn’t sonic, but flows from her performance and lyrics.
She might not have quite hit her stride as songwriter yet, either, with tracks such as Devil relying heavily on genre tropes, but collectively ‘The Whole Family Is Worried’ succeeds in reintroducing Miller to the world and placing her firmly as a promising artist for the future.
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
.jpg)
.jpg)
.png)
.jpg)
.jpg)
