To Whom It May ConcernArtist: Lisa Marie PresleyGenre: Pop Publisher: Capitol Released: 2003 |
A Review by Dainon Moody
08/14/2003
Her daddy was raised on gospel and country and helped birth the beginnings of rock ‘n roll. She was raised on … daddy.
Okay, so the daddy-daughter comparison between Elvis and Lisa Marie Presley isn't at all fair. And, granted, she's done plenty with her debut to keep her directly out of his territory. She's written all of her own songs, for one, while he never got past being some sort of arranging wizard, translating moderate hits for others into whole new hit songs for himself. Still, the comparison had to be made.
There is plenty that Lisa Marie is not. It is easy to focus on all the strikes against her when the bar's been placed as high as it has. What she is, however, is a very real presence in the world of pop music, solely because she presents her voice as one that appears to have broken a mold somewhere in the conception. It's unique. She's hiding behind plenty of walls with the very expensive, very produced sound carrying through the duration, but that low growl of a voice isn't one she's duplicated. Cher does something vaguely similar, only to a more annoying degree. At points, she's a more a pissed-off Gwen Stefani at her most guttural lows. But, for the most part, what she has created is her own. She took her own sweet time to arrive at this point, waiting until her mid-30's to start into the game. Her logic was simple: while most begin a music career to become famous, she already was. So it had to be right. If she appeared to be dragging her feet, it's because she wanted to wait until she had something to say.
Because she has written all her own lyrics, her songs are as personal as journal entries. The strikes against men are a given and the lullaby to her kids is cute, but it's her feelings on Graceland and her family buried “in the damn back lawn” that have to be ruffling tail feathers somewhere. She muses there's a funeral plot left there for her, whether she likes it or not, and she doesn't want to end up there. That's only the beginning of the angsty little mess that is Lisa Marie. A good half of To Whom It May Concern is devoted to the oft-visited subject of failed relationships; if we're to take what she's saying literally then, according to her, she's been getting kicked, very nearly crushed and her throat's been cut. All the more reason, then, for her to lash out at all the bad boys that have wronged her thus far. She keeps it all rather basic, not naming any names, but if we're to include those she's divorced, then shame on you Michael Jackson! How dare you, Nicolas Cage! Same goes for you … well, that other guy. The one who fathered her children? She's so incredibly pissy, she's going to show it by slipping in all the swear words she's allowed, too, about one for every tune. “Maybe my brutal honesty is only because I can get away with it,” she sings in “Important”. It certainly doesn't appear anybody's stopping her yet.
She's about a decade late for the Alanis generation, the one who encouraged the blatant man hating so much in the first place. And, if the Lilith Fair ever wanted to try and get her on the bill next time around, they'd do well to pass her by. Lisa Marie doesn't play well with others. She's a snarling, suspicious multimillionaire who likes her black leather. Whereas dad was always on the verge of cracking up and was eager to please his audience, she doesn't have much of that familiar Southern charm to go around: she's much more likely to give any critics a good swift kick in the jewels.
Why unnamed hidden tracks continue to appear on an album's tail end still remains a mystery, but there's one here, too. It's bare bones Presley and another song that takes her famous family by the horns as she sings about being the cause for their breaking up, and that the guilt has never left her. It's the only one other than “Lights Out” that doesn't skip around in vague generalities and surprise obscenities and, because it is so direct, it's one of the most engaging tracks on the album, as well as one of the most intelligible.
Try as she might, Lisa Marie is still very much her daddy's daughter. The sound-alike vocals may appear well hidden, but the growling gasps she's doing at the tail end of “Lights Out” are very much a signature Elvis move. Also, “Nobody Noticed It” captures similarities throughout, if only for the rather pretty high notes she's managing to hit.
There's a bootleg of “Don't Cry Daddy” floating around the Internet with Lisa Marie doing a duet with an Elvis recording, one of those scary Natalie Cole-Nat King Cole type things. She never recorded it professionally but, even in its raw state, it sounds wonderful. Taking a cue from how stunning it is, maybe getting out from behind the anger, the big guitars, the voice manipulators, the string arrangements and everything else might not be such a bad idea. With a pretty decent first try, though, we can always keep our hopes up for next time.
© Copyright ToxicUniverse.com 08/14/2003
