Vanessa Carlton - Rabbits on the Run

Vanessa Carlton - After some serious soul searching that elicits terms like "confused", "heartache" and "seclusion", the thirty-year-old singer songwriter headed to Peter Gabriel's studio in England with producer Steve Osborne to begin work on her fourth album...new decidedly art/pop project goes back to her strengths as a songwriter but with grand, more experimental touches throughout...though ultimately the vision exceeds the execution, Rabbits is well worth a run-through // Release: Rabbits On the Run (Out Now) // Sounds like: Carlton's piano backing has always added a touch of the dramatic to her torchy, often confessional anthems -- here she looks for a combination of classic retro pop and the bold, stage-ready flair of many of her indie female contemporaries...

Quote: "It might as well have been 1974. When I put on the test pressing of the record, I was like, 'I can listen to this, and then I can put on a Fleetwood Mac record, and then I can put on my Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young record, and then I can put on my Rickie Lee Jones.' I'm not saying that I'm some master songwriter, as they are. But the sound of it — they belong to the same family." // What we like: while not everything works here, you have to admire Carlton's decision to more left of center on the production -- and if you think of this as a debut, any prejudicial baggage is easier to let go..."Tall Tales For Spring" works hard to summon the Fiona/Feist/Regina triumvirate and though the singing betrays the atmospherics at times, the song still impresses... "I Don't Want to Be A Bride" again struggles through some mundane vocals but eventually takes a simple melody and turns it -- thanks, in great part to the smart lyrical edge -- into an interesting track...

Vanessa Carlton - "Tall Tales For Spring" (from Rabbits On The Run)

Vanessa Carlton - "I Don't Want to Be A Bride" (from Rabbits On The Run)