Melissa Etheridge One Way Out archival collection released

One Way Out Melissa Etheridge

Released: September 17, 2021 Peak: -- US, -- UK, -- CN, -- AU Sales (in millions): -- US, -- UK, -- world (includes US and UK) Genre: rock

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. One Way Out (5/25/21, --) As Cool As You Try (8/19/21, --) I’m No Angel Myself For the Last Time (7/9/21, --) Save Myself That Would Be Me Wild Wild Wild You Have No Idea (live) Life Goes On (live)

Rating: 3.595 out of 5.00 (average of 6 ratings)

About the Album: This archival collection is comprised mostly of songs from the late 1980s and early 1990s which Melissa Etheridge scrapped for one reason or another. For example, Etheridge though the “gorgeously gentle Wild Wild Wild ” 25 was “too sexual” when she first wrote it as she hadn’t come out yet. 25 She said of that song and others that it was “a tender sort of place that I was reluctant to go before I came out…Now it was really fun to just step forward and fearlessly present these songs.” RT She stumbled across that song and others when preparing a box set. In 2013, she finished the records with her original band of Fritz Lewak, John Shanks, and Kevin McCormick at Henson Studios. When she parted with her label, the box set was shelved and the songs were set aside once again. However, she found the songs again in 2020 when sorting through material to share on her Etheridge TV’s Friday Night Time Machine show. PW Now they finally see the light of day. “Etheridge kicks the album off with its tough, blues/rock title track One Way Out. It’s an absolute burner of a song that surrounds her vocal talents with overdriven guitar, wailing harmonica, and a bumping rhythm section. Etheridge has always excelled in this kind of rock band context and hearing her sing this one is an instant ticket back to the early days of her career. Her vocal presence is unmatchable and she reels you farther in with every word.” RB The “sass continues in more straightforward blues and country rocker As Cool As You Try,” 25 “this time with a mid-tempo feel that’s expansive and full of soul.” RB That Would Be Me “favours a more down-home blues feel but with a confrontational vocal delivery.” 25 “Then the guitar solo is so dirty in Save Myself it needs a long bath.” 25 “I’m No Angel Myself is an entrancing ballad with a backbone that seems to be a plea to someone bent on self-destruction to come back from the ledge. Etheridge speaks her piece at the tempo of a fast heartbeat that allows the empathy in her lyrics to come to the forefront. She sings like a friend whispering what needs to be said right into your ear in a crowded bar.” RB You Have No Idea and Life Goes On were recorded live at the Roxy in Los Angeles in 2002. The former “is pure, small-band rock and roll bliss” RB with “a gritty and gutsy American feel to it.” 25 The latter is “a song about remembering the old days as they were and how much living had happened since then.” RB

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Melissa Etheridge 25 25 Years Later Site album review by Steve Swift PW Primary Wave RB Rock and Blues Muse review by Mike O’Cull RT Rough Trade Other Related DMDB Pages: First posted 11/19/2021.