Throwing away the chains of pop music stardom, and basking in her new motherhood, singer Michelle Branch has formed a new band with friend and Kansas City native Jessica Harp to write and perform modern country music with a rock and roll touch. Performing with heart and energy, The Wreckers offer the pleasing mixture of country and pop that has become a staple of today's Nashville, delivering several sure singles, several stand out tracks, with some enjoyable tasting filler in between.
The songs feel comfortable and familiar, whether its due to some similarities with Branch's earlier work or just their ability to sound a lot like the Dixie Chicks. But even the filler tastes pretty good. The first single Leave the pieces is a pure modern country-pop song, full of tight vocal harmonies and with violins and banjos providing flourishes to the guitar heavy arrangement. Fans of tv show One Tree Hill will remember The Good Kind, a more plaintive and emotional song with Jessica and Michelle trading lines in their pleasant voices; Sometimes it's hard to tell where Michelle's voice begins and Jessica's ends. Tennessee, another potentially huge single, has a definite Faith Hill feel to it, with a soaring chorus and is one of the best tracks on the album. My Oh My and Crazy People are more traditional country songs, driven by banjos and having a bluegrass flavor that makes for a highly addictive combination. The powerfully gentle title track Stand Still Look Pretty and the soft track Rain are more somber and reserved and musically more diverse, and fit in perfectly with the overall tenor of the record.
Spending the summer on tour with Rascal Flatts seems appropriate for The Wreckers, since they deliver the same type of easily digestible modern country that sounds darn good on the radio. It's not the most adventurous songwriting in the world, and it probably won't win praise with critics because of its commercial viability, but its a heck of a lot of fun nonetheless. If you enjoy Dixie Chicks, Rascal Flatts, or Michelle Branch's previous work, you will enjoy this album. The writing is solid, the music is as slickly produced as you would expect from a bevy of Nashville producers and Jessica and Michelle's friendship makes for some beautiful music. This version is the limited edition that contains a short DVD and an acoustic version of the great song Tennessee. Either album will suit you fine, but this version is more for the hard core fan. Recommended.
A.G. Corwin
St.Louis, MO
I'm a big fan of all of Michelle Branch's pop/rock solo albums. I still want another solo album from Michelle, but I can't complain at all about Stand Still, Look Pretty. Largely produced by John Leventhal, the production is polished, but not slick enough to overpower the good musicianship going on here. Michelle and Jessica Harp harmonize very well because of their similar voices. Sometimes it's difficult to tell them apart. The album is quite serious, but ends up with the humorous "Crazy People." Without that song to lighten things up, I would have reduced the CD's rating a bit. Finally, a little of Michelle's pop and folk styles do come through on songs like the title track and "Rain." Great job, Michelle and Jessica!
Like most people, I have albums that have a couple of songs that I like, one or two that I dislike and a few that are just ok. This is one of those rare albums where all of the songs are great! The Wreckers have nailed it with every song and I thank them for it. This should be an award winning album.
After more than a year of waiting, the long-awaited debut album from The Wreckers is finally available.
The Wreckers consists of Michelle Branch, the amazing, widely-known, Grammy-winning singer/songwriter, and Jessica Harp, the equally amazing yet unfortunately not-as-widely-known singer/songwriter of the same vein. In late 2004/early 2005, the two decided to collaborate, and thus, The Wreckers came to be. As The Wreckers, Michelle sheds her pop persona and focuses more on Jess's country stylings, providing a contemporary pop/country mix. Stand Still, Look Pretty is the result.
The album opens with the duo's first single, Leave The Pieces, which is the kind of song you'd hear on a typical modern country radio station. Right away, the music and lyrics prove to the newcomers the amazing talents of Michelle and Jess while giving die-hard fans more of a reason to love them.
Jessica brings The Good Kind, a previously written song of hers, to the plate. This song also appeared on the One Tree Hill soundtrack in early 2005, giving the world their first taste of The Wreckers. The song has changed slightly from the soundtrack cut to the album cut, giving it a bit more country twang than it had previously. While Jess's original version is an in-your-face rock song, The Wreckers have tooled it into a heartbreaking country/pop song in the vein of songs by country artists like the Dixie Chicks, only with more of a pop flavor.
Likewise, Michelle brings one of her songs, Lay Me Down, to the project, which fans have been dying to hear more than a 50-second clip of since the days of Hotel Paper. The finished version on this album is a good example of Michelle's talent with lyrics, as well as the girls' vocal range.
Elsewhere on this album is a beautiful cover of Patty Griffin's One More Girl, an extremely emotional song, which expresses the emotion that Jess and Michelle can convey with their voices.
The title track, Stand Still, Look Pretty, is another of the songs that best captivates the audience with emotion and beautifully-executed lyrics. This is my favorite track off the album and, from my viewpoint at least, it expresses many of Michelle's feelings about her popularity and what's expected of her in the music profession.
The closing track, Crazy People, is a decidedly silly song that can only be described as, well, crazy. Listen closely to the lyrics and you'll see what I mean. The Wreckers' official street team is also named Crazy People, which could be taken to mean that they believe that their fans are just as crazy as they are. Or maybe that's just me.
Filling out the album are Way Back Home, Tennessee, My, Oh My, Hard To Love You, Cigarettes, and Rain. However, these tracks are by no means filler. Each of these songs displays the raw talent of Jessica and Michelle through their music and lyrics. Way Back Home, Tennessee, My, Oh My, and Cigarettes are more traditional country with a modern twang, while Hard To Love You and Rain are a mix of pop and country flavors.
I've been a huge fan of Michelle Branch since Hotel Paper was released in 2003, and I loved her singles from The Spirit Room before I knew it was her singing them. After hearing the announcement of the formation of The Wreckers and seeing them live on the One Tree Hill tour, I was introduced to Jessica Harp's music and became a fan of hers. Now that Stand Still, Look Pretty has hit shelves, and the dynamic duo has started over with a new sound, I've fallen in love with them all over again. This is one album that is hard to remove from your CD player, even if you're not a die-hard uber fan. People out there who don't like country may even have a hard time saying no.
Overall this is a good album. I found the mood of the album leaning toward depressing and wonder how two such beautiful young women could have had that many hard knocks. However, they sing about them very convincingly. Although some songs have a Dixie Chick flavor and one had a Judds feel to it, I wouldn't call this a Country album. Maybe it would fit better into what I'm hearing called today Alt Country. A couple could probably cross into the Adult Contemporary area, just because of the category neutrality of the song. It's a shame AC hasn't given them a spin as they did with Keith Urban or Rascal Flats. The playing and vocals on the album are good which should find most listeners happy with the album. This is the first album I've owned featuring Michelle Branch so I'm not able to draw any comparisons to any of her earlier stuff. I heard Track 1 on a Country station and it immediately caught my ear as an outstanding song and after listening to samples decided to buy it. Track 2 actually became my favorite and I can't believe I haven't heard this on the radio somewhere. The album has many strong tracks and worthy of a spot in your collection.
