Jennifer Paige
Positively Somewhere

THE REVIEW

This second album by Jennifer Paige, released in 2001, three years after her debut, is yet another attempt to establish her personality as a pop singer. The girl puts in the effort, which cannot be denied, yet something prevents her from making her way through the treacherous waters of showbiz. And for someone like her, who creates polished pop, this can be a serious handicap.

"Positively Somewhere" features twelve well-crafted songs where the clear voice of the American starlet can be appreciated, sometimes incisive, sometimes ethereal. But why start with a cover, in this case, "These Days" by the Australian group Bardot? A very effective version, indeed: a vigorous pop-rock marked by the alternation between acoustic and electric guitars, the latter making the sound fuller in the choruses, and by a powerful percussion. The electric guitars also reinforce the following "Here With Me", another pop-rock piece split between the sweetness of the sound, entrusted to the keyboards, and its saturation due to the overwhelming guitars.

The rest of the album moves through not particularly original territories, even in the choice of tracks: "Stranded", another cover, this time by American singer Plumb, is released as a single in an attempt to boost the rather lukewarm reception of the album. The various tracks still highlight Jennifer's well-trained voice and the successful melodic inventions that abound in the album. "Feel So Far Away", "Tell Me When", and others are examples of a sophisticated pop that finds its most authentic justification in the sense of moderation, the absence of ambitious pretensions, and the resulting balance.

This is, in short, the album of a girl who perhaps dreams of becoming a star but, as happens in the "Stranded" video, performs in a venue with no audience. The album sells too little for the record label, which leaves the blonde by the wayside. Something in the mechanism breaks down and it takes seven years before we see her return to the music scene ("Best Kept Secret", 2008). In this dark side of Jennifer, in this sense of unfinished business, lie, for me, the reasons for interest in the American singer.