No Mistakin' Good Music (Mistaken Identity - Delta Goodrem)

Member Name: IainWear

Product:	Mistaken Identity - Delta Goodrem
Date:	31/01/05 (459 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great to have her back

Disadvantages: A bit poppier and less original than her debut

The release of Delta Goodrem’s debut album “Innocent Eyes” was followed by a period of illness, as she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Goodrem herself was confident that she would beat the illness and return and millions of fans were supporting her to do just that. In a world where so many sub-standard acts are allowed to release albums and then disappear, Delta Goodrem’s debut showed enough talent to suggest that she could have a long career ahead of her and it would have been a shame, for her as well as for music lovers, if circumstances were to prevent this.

However, just like Anastacia, who beat breast cancer to return better than ever, Goodrem has showed she is made of more than just musical talent. She fought for this album all the way, during a period when first her illness and then her love life were to be in the news more than her music. But, like any true musician, the music would always be there for her and, thankfully, both she and her music is still here for us too.

Appropriately, the album begins with “Out of the Blue”, with the opening lines clearly marking this album as being a new start after her illness. Although it starts as a piano led ballad, such as many of the songs on her first album, there’s more to the sound later in, making it sound like a lush ballad, much like Faith Hill has been doing recently, with even the vocals sounding quite similar in parts. It’s the kind of song you can picture playing over the end credits of a big romantic film.

The piano work on “The Analyst” is a lot more intricate and a little bit more up-tempo. The piano work is a little like some of the songs on Vanessa Carlton’s album, although the addition of the backing vocals gives the song a sound not unlike some of the Corrs songs. It’s a well crafted pop number, with the quality of Goodrem’s vocals setting it apart from most pop songs.

“Mistaken Identity” has been chosen to be the second single and starts a little darker than we’re used to hearing from Delta Goodrem. It is this and the breathy vocal delivery in parts that makes me think of Vanessa Carlton again, although with a richer sound. Another finely crafted pop ballad, with some quirky bits towards the end that are a little like Kate Bush.

It seems that there has been more work put into this album in terms of the music, and there’s very little that is simply Goodrem’s vocals and the piano on their own. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but on “Sanctuary”, the vocals do seem to be over powered a little at some points, and she almost seems to be fighting it. She has such a fine voice that it seems a shame to hide it away and it takes the edge off another fine ballad, again in the traditions of recent Faith Hill efforts.

The acoustic guitar introduction to “A Little Too Late” comes as a surprise, as does the formulaic nature of the whole song. It’s a bit more up-tempo than what has come before, and the vocal delivery tends towards being an almost standard pop vocal, although there’s again a Corrs like sound to some of the backing vocals. Unusually, however, there’s very little to make this song stand out from many other pop songs around and even Goodrem’s vocals have fallen into a standard pop sound, which is a great loss.

“Be Strong” is back to the Delta Goodrem standard, a piano led ballad with her vocals standing out in front to be counted. There are parts where you can hear shades of some of Christina Aguilera’s recent ballads, such as “Beautiful”, and the chorus does tend towards the big overblown Faith Hill ballad side of things, as does the ending.

The piano introduction to “Last Night on Earth” sounds a little more classical, before moving more into the pop spectrum, proving that Goodrem can certainly play. It’s again a little faster and lusher than some of the ballads, with that Corrs like effect again appearing on the backing vocals and the Faith Hill sound to the main vocals. Unusually for a Delta Goodrem song, this track seems longer than it actually is, suggesting that it’s outstaying its welcome a little.

Bryan McFadden somehow manages to sound more like Enrique Iglesias than Westlife at the start of “Almost Here”, which comes as a surprise. Sadly, especially considering all the rumours they had to face while working together, the song is a bit of a mess, not being entirely sure what it wants to be. At some points, it has a heavy pop edge, in others a Spanish feel and at others it’s almost standard Delta Goodrem fare. It manages to end sounding like the big duets you used to get as the love songs in the old style Disney cartoons, which is actually the best sounding bit. This could have been a beautiful pop ballad, but it couldn’t decide what it wanted to be, and just ended up as a mess, as it feels as if just when you’ve started to enjoy it, the song changes.

There’s an almost funky groove at the start of “Miscommunication” and an ethereal quality to the vocals that sounds a lot like Kate Bush, although there’s hints of Portishead in there as well. Goodrem’s vocals aren’t as powerful as they have been previously, which does make the song sound a little more lightweight than is usual, although the funky little backing does manage to salvage it a little. Not much more than a fairly standard pop ballad, though.

“Electric Storm” starts with the piano tinkling down like rain and it seems that we’re back to Goodrem at her best. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last for too long, and breaks into something that sounds a bit like Vanessa Carlton is parts, before moving through and becoming stronger and more like Faith Hill again. It’s quite an impressive mid-tempo pop song, not quite a ballad, and apart from some of the piano work, it’s nothing terribly special.

The piano and string introduction to “Extraordinary Day” again sounds like typical Goodrem fare, but the song soon expands into another standard Faith Hill style pop ballad. It’s not a badly worked track, but is just a little too overblown to wash over you, but not quite captivating enough to hold your attention.

“Fragile” is a lot like the title would suggest, a lot more simply worked that much of what has gone before, with just a piano and the vocals, much like much of the “Innocent Eyes” album. For the first time, you really get to appreciate the power and beauty of Delta Goodrem’s vocals and it’s a lovely, if essentially very simple, pop ballad.

The bonus tracks start with “Disorientated” which has an intricate piano opening that makes me think of Kate Bush a little. The song does expand into more of an overblown mid-tempo pop ballad and, given how the album has been before, is clearly Delta Goodrem even though the trademark piano can barely be heard after the introduction.

The album closes on “You Are My Rock”, which is very similar to the opening track, “Out of the Blue” in attitude, in that it’s very personal. It’s a little more up-tempo than a ballad for the most part and along the same lines as “Fragile”, musically speaking. However, towards the end it does expand into a more rounded sound and there is a little part of the vocals that reminds me of the big Disney Cartoon film pop ballad again. Overall, though, this is one of the closest songs in sound to Goodrem’s debut.

Although the things that made Delta Goodrem’s debut album “Innocent Eyes” as impressive as it was – her great piano playing and her amazing voice – are still here, there is a far more rounded sound to this album which, unfortunately, does take the edge of these things. Many of the songs don’t feel quite like the Delta Goodrem we know from the debut album, but a Delta Goodrem with more of a commercial pop twist. This is not a surprise, though, considering that her main co-writers on this album were Guy Chambers, who wrote with Robbie Williams for a long time and Cathy Dennis, who wrote Hear’Say’s “Pure and Simple”, among many other recent pop hits.

However, any pop act needs to evolve to survive, and although there’s more of a lighter weight pop sound to the album, it is a lot more rounded and a lot lusher than on “Innocent Eyes”, making “Mistaken Identity” the better album technically, even if the whole doesn’t quite match the sum of the parts. To those like me who were captivated by the triple whammy of the piano playing and Goodrem’s voice and how much of her life she was willing to share on the first album, all of those aspects are still present. Here, though, it is the last that stands out, as she’s had some rough times since the last album, but is still prepared to open up her life and let us in. There’s less optimism this time, but the way she expresses herself is no less beautiful because of it.

If you’re a fan of Delta’s debut “Innocent Eyes”, then this is a step forward from that, but still well worth a listen. If you’re a fan of music to relax to at the end of the day, then this could well be for you, too. If you’ve enjoyed other artists who specialise in big overblown pop ballads, like Faith Hill’s recent output has mostly been, you’ll love this, as Delta Goodrem is one of the better singers around at the moment. For 55 minutes of top quality ballads, with a few other styles thrown in, £8.99 from Amazon or play.com isn’t too much to pay. It can be found slightly cheaper through the Amazon Marketplace from £7.00, or at eBay from £4.99, although this will become cheaper in time, as it is still a recent album at this point.

There is also a version of the album available with a bonus DVD, which contains the video to “Out of the Blue”, the album’s first single and a “Behind the Scenes” look at the filming of the video. With the song playing over the back of the latter, and only brief moments of Delta cutting in and talking about the song and the video, there’s no significant difference between the two that it doesn’t seem like the same thing repeated. Indeed, even seeing the video adds very little to the album version of the song, except that you can see that Delta has amazingly blue eyes.

The other segments are more interesting, showing shots of Delta around the world and with her talking about the album and the recording of it and some pictures of her working in the studio. The final part is Delta talking about what inspired her to write the individual songs on the album. It’s really only something that is a particularly big fan of Delta Goodrem, and is especially inspired by her fight against her illness and how she bounced back. For anyone else, I wouldn’t say that the DVD is worth the additional £4.00 or so that its inclusion seems to add to the price of the album and to just buy the CD if it appeals to your musical tastes, or to wait a little until copies in this format come available more cheaply through eBay or the Amazon Marketplace.

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