By GRAHAM REID
(Herald rating: * * * )
The Album As Therapy is not uncommon. John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band and Neil Young's Tonight's the Night stand as dark examples.
Here Etheridge, an otherwise workmanlike rocker, comes to terms with the separation from her partner of 12 years, Julie Cypher, in
a series of intensely personal songs which ache effectively but also fall into some cliched lyrics: "I know before you run you gotta learn to crawl" and "I have climbed the highest mountain" are typical, and she's "looking for a heart of gold".
Early on Etheridge adopts a relentlessly accusatory tone ("Was it too hard to try", "I think I deserve a little more") but as the album progresses, the shift is from pain to — yes, you guessed it — healing. ("My battered heart will make a new start.")
Although still sometimes stuck in the Middle America rock style (a sprinkle of Seger and Springsteen) this is a more diverse and deeper album than her previous, often leaden, works and those who see her as a soul-sister will doubtless feel plenty of empathy with this autobiographical journey.
Label: Island
