Michelle Branch - The Spirit Room (20th Anniversary Edition)

Release Date: October 15th, 2021
Genre: pop rock

Review: Kinda interesting that if you google Michelle Branch at the moment, it's mostly fake outrage about her Virgin Mary Halloween costume, despite being raised catholic herself. Anyways, Michelle Branch was my gateway into listening to music. I legitimately didn't care about music until I discovered "All You Wanted" and needed to hear her beyond the two singles. 

With that said, it's very hard for me to review her music because at one point in my life, I really thought Michelle Branch was going to be the greatest singer-songwriter ever. Her lyrics resonated with me. This album isn't a faithful rerecording like Taylor Swift is doing. It's just an album if Michelle could do now, 20 years later, without all the early 00's production.

To keep this short, none of the songs surpass the original version of The Spirit Room. Her voice doesn't get that high anymore. I remember she said in the past that she wrote most of these songs before falling in love, so the lyrical content does feel, authentically teenager, but listening now as an adult, it feels very surface level.

There is a recording of "Paper Pieces," which is cool of her to include, but again, it's hard to beat the original. Then, there's an alternative version of "Everywhere" that is dark, mysterious. I don't like it.

Summary: I listened to it, glad she did it. it's alright, it's nostalgic, it sounds like it was recorded in a room and not a studio. so it doesn't feel the same without that 00's production.  I'm only giving this a low score because I don't think it sounds as good as the originals and I don't see myself choosing to listen to these songs over the originals.

Key Tracks: n/a
Rating: 4/10