Michelle Branch
Broken Bracelet

THE REVIEW

Don't ask her to wait for you! She won't listen! Her name is Michelle Branch, she carries a guitar on her shoulder, and she's used to burning through stages. Ever since she was in the maternal womb, having been born premature... Her debut album, "Broken Bracelet," came out before she even turned seventeen; she was married before twenty-one, a mother at twenty-two.

So at her debut, this American songwriter's "Broken Bracelet" came out in 2000 for an independent label and features about a dozen songs mostly based on the tried and tested voice and acoustic guitar formula. It's agreeable pop-rock, a style nourished as much by robust songwriting craftsmanship as by the awareness of having to avoid overly predictable models. And as with many debut albums, it's also an attempt to find a personal voice.

She has no lack of grit, Michelle, who tells in these songs the sense of inadequacy one sometimes feels when our role in the world is not yet defined. Like in the opening track: "I know she loves you and they can't interfere / so I'll sit and watch my world disappear" ("If Only She Knew"). She, him, and the other woman, in short. A good dose of naivety shines through in the way the album's themes are touched on, like dismay: "Pieces of paper scattered on the floor / I fall apart now that the coffee is black and my heart aches / lift me up, piece me together with adhesive tape" ("Paper Pieces"); or distrust: "It's a leap of faith believing someone's out there / it's a leap of faith believing that someone cares" ("Leap of Faith").

Above all, though, there's Michelle's full voice and the guitars, mainly acoustic, that traverse the record with ever-changing timbres to avert the risk of monotony. There's also a Ricky Lee Jones cover, "Stewart's Coat", evoking the American songwriting tradition which Michelle Branch, with this record, quietly joins.

At 16, mingling with the crowd at a concert, Michelle had received a bracelet and a strange promise: "When it breaks, you'll become famous." A year later, the bracelet broke, but shortly after it would reappear: on the cover of this album.