Reedited on: 11/12/2016
In this post, I decided to write about my favorite singer Vanessa Carlton and her last album. I could've listened to all the tracks, including the bonus tracks. Vanessa Carlton is being with me since her first single A Thousand Miles in 2002, since then, her music has been with me so far. So, before talking about her new release Rabbits On The Run, I'm going to make a little path of her from her debut album until 2011.
Be Not Nobody
The first appearance of Vanessa Carlton occurred in 2002 with her first album that has her first hit known by a lot of people: A Thousand Miles. In her first album, she has predominantly the pop style and more animated melodies and lyrics, also she received several nominations in the music awards. The piano itself is mainly and fundamental to her compositions. There are other hits in this album: Ordinary Day and Pretty Baby.
Harmonium
Her second album was released in 2004 and it comes with a big conflict of her career: create the music in her own style, pressure from the record company, and other conflicts related to this. This album is considered as a failure if compared to the success of her first album, Harmonium was produced by Stephen Jenkins and it has dark melodies and lyrics. Duo the autonomous production in this album, Vanessa had more control about the musical production elements, this situation makes her lose the support from her managers and, then, later it made her leave the record company. On the other hand, Harmonium had a single White Houses that was well received by the public.
This album has the melody that I like the most, the piano style is so different from the first album, that's what made me really like theses music: Afterglow, Who's To Say, and Anne.
Heroes & Thieves
Here we have my favorite album from Vanessa Carlton, I like all the tracks. Released in 2007 with a new record company, Vanessa told it has her best songs she has written, so she thinks that it's her most honest work and that actually looks like an album made by her. She said Heroes & Thieves is about personal developing, about finding happiness in the difficult times. Besides, the singer reported each track is like a caption of a book, which is related to the album's art. Vanessa said her music was built by her experience and they speak from a mature point of view, which is different from her first compositions. Heroes & Thieves has the singles: Nolita Fairytale and Hands On Me.
In this album is possible to notice the intense use of the piano if compared to the two last albums, something showed through the tracks: Come Undone and Home presenting piano solos of 1-3 minutes in the end.
This album marks the end of the agreement with the record label Universal because Vanessa Carlton had the major control about the musical production in the way she wanted to be. She had a style in a way her production didn't want. Because of that, Vanessa has lost popularity between the second and the third album, so she needed to look for other record labels that would accept her compositions. Because of this situation, she had a late release of her fourth album, which I'm going to comment on below.
The album
Released on July 26th, 2016 with the new record label, Rabbits On The Run is the fourth studio album by Vanessa Carlton. It has 10 tracks in the common version, also 3 acoustic tracks launched at iTunes. The album has a music video of Carousel as extra and two videos about the production, they have launched also in iTunes.
1. Carousel
2. I Don't Want To Be a Bride
3. London
4. Fairweather Friend
5. Hear The Bells
6. Dear California
7. Tall Tales For Spring
8. Get Good
9. The Marching Line
10. In The End
11. Tall Tales For Spring - Acoustic Version (iTunes)
12. Carousel - Acoustic Version (iTunes)
13. London - Acoustic Version (iTunes)
14. Carousel - Music Video (iTunes)
15. The Four Elementos of Rabbits On The Run - Video (iTunes)
16. Behind the scenes of 'Carousel' video - Video (iTunes)
And about the album's title and artwork, Vanessa said in an interview to SongFacts she had inspiration in the books Watership Down by Richard Adam and A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. The rabbit symbol, she said, is a symbol of different mythologies and other references. Vanessa said she had a connection with the stories fo these books, which are sentimental, so they become the basis for all the projects she planned to create Rabbits On The Run.
Single
Carousel
Launched in May 2011 Carousel has the independent and autonomous style of Vanessa Carlton. She told SongFacts Carousel was the only music she has written that came from a dream that she had, she just woke up and had the feeling, no the words, and with it, she created the scale and the chorus rhythm. And then, the words came in a rush, she wrote everything in her Blackberry.
Carousel is an expression of the idea of the album planned by Vanessa and her personal attachment to those two books, so the rabbits and the album's title are shown in the Carousel's lyrics: For all your brokenhearted lovers lost / Go find another one / Cause you time won't wait and you'll be late / White rabbits on the run.
Single
Carousel
Launched in May 2011 Carousel has the independent and autonomous style of Vanessa Carlton. She told SongFacts Carousel was the only music she has written that came from a dream that she had, she just woke up and had the feeling, no the words, and with it, she created the scale and the chorus rhythm. And then, the words came in a rush, she wrote everything in her Blackberry.
Carousel is an expression of the idea of the album planned by Vanessa and her personal attachment to those two books, so the rabbits and the album's title are shown in the Carousel's lyrics: For all your brokenhearted lovers lost / Go find another one / Cause you time won't wait and you'll be late / White rabbits on the run.
The album has other singles: Dear California, I Don't Want To Be a Bride and Hear The Bells.
About the album's construction: The Four Elements of Rabbits On The Run
Vanessa made a video talking about the process of production of Rabbits On The Run, she sought the best context to do it. In the video, she says she needed to capture a creepy, honest, dreamy, fantastical sound in this album. So, to her, the ideal environment was made of the 4 elements: 1) To find people who could help her to create this atmosphere, and then, she has found the musical producer Stevie Osbourne, someone who was fundamental to achieve her objectives. 2) The second element is a choir, her music was built with it. So the Capital Children's Choir was included. 3) The team of musicians to collaborate with the album's production, which is included: the guitarist Ari Ingber and the drummer Patrick Hallahan. 4) The last element was the process of record the tracks and the place to do it: Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios.
My impressions
In Rabbits On The Run, I noticed a different style if compared to the latest albums, it happens because of the guitar end other string instruments, the piano doesn't have the main role - what is uncommon in the other albums. Here, Vanessa Carlton starts the indie style, even though there are tracks like Tall Tales For Spring and Carousel which have similarities with the style of the latest album.
When the production of Rabbits On The Run was launched, at first was called Tall Tales For Spring, and was expected the instrumental track Waltz, unfortunately, it hasn't come as I expected: it has lyrics and the name was changed to Tall Tales For Spring. Among the tracks with the new style - the transition to the indie/folk style - there is Dear California, it has the guitar as main instrument e there is a little of the piano chords. There it is:
Even though I felt the impact of the change in the music style of Vanessa Carlton in Rabbits On The Run, I like the new tracks, they show me how much the style is related to the composer's personal story. The way how Vanessa shows herself through the music is interesting, it's like she has her own music style, as if nobody could do something similar. I think it's interesting how she can release new projects and write music without thinking about the impact on her public and the record label, what's makes think it's something original and daring to do. Due to Vanessa's posture to achieve autonomous creation, she has been having a difficult situation with record labels, and it's going to influence her next album release: it doesn't have a previous date to be launched. But that's okay, I'm just hoping she doesn't stop to create music, she has good music to listen, they are unique.
References and Images
Vanessa Carlton Official Site
Vanessa Carlton - Wikipedia in English
Rabbits On The Run (album) - Wikipedia in English
About the album's construction: The Four Elements of Rabbits On The Run
Vanessa made a video talking about the process of production of Rabbits On The Run, she sought the best context to do it. In the video, she says she needed to capture a creepy, honest, dreamy, fantastical sound in this album. So, to her, the ideal environment was made of the 4 elements: 1) To find people who could help her to create this atmosphere, and then, she has found the musical producer Stevie Osbourne, someone who was fundamental to achieve her objectives. 2) The second element is a choir, her music was built with it. So the Capital Children's Choir was included. 3) The team of musicians to collaborate with the album's production, which is included: the guitarist Ari Ingber and the drummer Patrick Hallahan. 4) The last element was the process of record the tracks and the place to do it: Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios.
My impressions
In Rabbits On The Run, I noticed a different style if compared to the latest albums, it happens because of the guitar end other string instruments, the piano doesn't have the main role - what is uncommon in the other albums. Here, Vanessa Carlton starts the indie style, even though there are tracks like Tall Tales For Spring and Carousel which have similarities with the style of the latest album.
When the production of Rabbits On The Run was launched, at first was called Tall Tales For Spring, and was expected the instrumental track Waltz, unfortunately, it hasn't come as I expected: it has lyrics and the name was changed to Tall Tales For Spring. Among the tracks with the new style - the transition to the indie/folk style - there is Dear California, it has the guitar as main instrument e there is a little of the piano chords. There it is:
Even though I felt the impact of the change in the music style of Vanessa Carlton in Rabbits On The Run, I like the new tracks, they show me how much the style is related to the composer's personal story. The way how Vanessa shows herself through the music is interesting, it's like she has her own music style, as if nobody could do something similar. I think it's interesting how she can release new projects and write music without thinking about the impact on her public and the record label, what's makes think it's something original and daring to do. Due to Vanessa's posture to achieve autonomous creation, she has been having a difficult situation with record labels, and it's going to influence her next album release: it doesn't have a previous date to be launched. But that's okay, I'm just hoping she doesn't stop to create music, she has good music to listen, they are unique.
See you at the next post!
References and Images
Vanessa Carlton Official Site
Vanessa Carlton - Wikipedia in English
Rabbits On The Run (album) - Wikipedia in English
