Rated Flashback - Spirit Room

There's one album that sticks with you from your teen years and showers you with nostalgia upon every listen. That one album for me (aside from the likes of Jagged Little Pill and Hotel Paper) is The Spirit Room by Canadian singer/songwriter Michelle Branch. She never took off over here, but she made a pretty big impact overseas, scoring a Grammy and 3 top 40 singles, not to mention the 2million+ sales of the album in the US alone.

This album sticks with me because it's, simply, catchy as hell. It's pretty standard acoustic pop/rock from the early 00s, but there's just something rather marvellous going on here that I've never been able to put my finger on. Whether it's Branch's distinguishable vocals, emotion driven performance, the brilliant melodies or the well constructed lyricism, I do not know. Maybe it's a combination of all the above? I was only 13 when this album came out and some pretty harrowing stuff was going on in my personal life at the time, thus the reason it's remained a pretty important part of my musical therapy collection. I felt down recently so I whipped it out and began soothing my soul once more.

With singles 'Everywhere', 'All You Wanted' and the superb 'Goodbye to You', the album couldn't really go wrong. There's not one filler, every song feels like it's been carved out of musical stone, and the non-singles are either equally as effective and fun as the released or they take things to another level. 'Sweet Misery' and 'Something to Sleep to' for example, are startlingly awesome pop songs. The former, probably my favourite from the album, features a lovely vocal performance and stunning choral melody, something that recurs throughout Branch's work (she's got a knack for cracking out hooks). A surprising moment on The Spirit Room is 'Drop in the Ocean', which goes from haunting love song to a trippy Tori Amos style dancey number. This is a bout as sonically experimental this album gets, but it is supposed to be a pop/rock album, not a 'Professional Widow' style collection.

Sounding mildly like Alanis Morissette in her earliest years, Branch's vocal style reaches a similar sound at her higher pitches. However, Morissette's material was beyond her years at Branch's age and was as intricate and metaphorical as lyrics can possibly get. The Spirit Room certainly is not Jagged Little Pill, the main reason being a lack of maturity. Branch's age shows with her coolly named book of love songs and angst. However, as young as these love songs are they're written masterfully. Song writing is Branch's main forte, proven with the release of second album Hotel Paper, which had more love songs but more maturity, making for a slightly darker sound (emphasis on slightly). This is an album that will always stick with me, kind of like a child hood teddy bear that keeps reappearing every time you start to feel a little low.