[img]http://www.rockandreprise.net/picture_library/marianabell4.jpg[/img]
[color=Orange]Push [2011][/color]

01. Push 
02. On It 
03. Room With No Doors 
04. Balloon 
05. Good Enough 
06. California Clay 
07. Restless 
08. Love You More 
09. Titanic 
10. Virginia Clay


“After solid outing with Book, Charlottesville's Mariana Bellavoids sophomore jinx with Push”, the article in my head reads, Variety-style headlines in bold black letters screaming “Boffo!” and “It's a Hit!” with the appropriate number of exclamation points following. Lucky for you, it is just in my head because I am sure you have enough trouble reading my contributions without my reverting to 1930s Broadway. Still, that's what I felt when I first heard the album and that's what I feel after a good twenty listens. Push, my Modern Pop friends, is a killer! Track after track, Bell lays out ear-catching melodies as good as any mainstream femme vocalist out there. I have to conclude that I am in love--- with the music if not the girl.

I hesitate to use Modern Pop (with the really good music, I hesitate to label genre because, to me, the good stuff transcends genre) for fear of isolating those who equate it with Miley Cyrus or Britney Spears, but what the hell. Modern Pop it is (well, to me anyway) and I love it. I used to turn the TV up when the ad featuring Perfect Day came on. My guilty pleasures are early Taylor Swift and Michelle Branch (Sshh!) and my not so guilty pleasure is the pop side ofLisa Parade, whose Finding Flora album gets regular rotation on the CD player thanks to a superb mix of trip hop, pop and rock. Give me melody and a hook any day and when you toss in outstanding arrangement and production, stick a fork in me.

You can stick a fork in Push. It's done. Boy, is it done. What I have in my hands is a pre-release CD-R sent to me by Bell, so the attributes are not listed, but these sessions border on epic. We have become inured to the top tier by the major labels, who (according to their PR) pull out all stops to give you the best. Well, this is as good as any major label effort I've heard in the past ten years and maybe longer. Producer? Session men? Mariana herself? When this was recorded, they were all at the top of their game.

cd ripped by EAC

please seed

[url]http://dickthespic.org/2011/10/06/mariana-bell/[/url]