Erin McCarley - Love, Save the Empty
By Nick Manteris · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Erin McCarley already has songs featured in a few television shows (and a movie) and her song “Pony (It's OK)” was picked as the first iTunes single of the week for 2009. Her music seems almost perfectly suited to be the inconspicuous background ambience in a teen drama and maybe that’s why she’s been fast-tracked into the spotlight. Most of the offerings on this album are merely average, but that’s not to say that she doesn’t have a great voice or any talent…if she had released her album one month sooner she might have beat out the other girls on the top pop albums of 2008 list. Still, this is a pop album and being pop is its greatest limitation.
Fiona Apple has obviously influenced Erin McCarley and her best songs share a similar delivery style and a “Jon Brion-esque” approach to instrumentation. “Sticky-Sweet” is one of those songs and it’s the first track on the album to rise above the vanilla pop. The next song of note is “Love, Save the Empty,” which is surprisingly revealing, but not quite as interesting musically.
- Score
- 67%
The darker and more emotional “It's Not That Easy” indicates the type of life experience she’s had with lines like “I don’t wanna let you in/to be another mess to me/I don’t trust me with loving you.” With this song she finally shows us what we could maybe expect if she went in a non-pop direction and it’s easily the best track on Love, Save the Empty. Maybe with all the money from the royalties she will branch out artistically and create a sophomore album that makes her debut look like a slump…we can only hope.
