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Skin [Melissa Etheridge]

Melissa Etheridge
1 disc

1. Lover Please
2. Prison, The
3. Walking on Water
4. Down to One
5. Goodnight
6. It's Only Me
7. I Want to Be in Love
8. Please Forgive Me
9. Different, The
10. Heal Me
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 548661
Credits

Producer David Cole; Melissa Etheridge
Engineer David Cole
Personnel: Melissa Etheridge (vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonica, keyboards); David Cole (keyboards, programming); Roger Manning Jr. (keyboards); Mark Browne (bass); Kenny Aronoff (drums); Gota Yashiki, Abe Laboriel, Jr. (loops); Laura Dern, Meg Ryan (background vocals).
Recorded at The Village Recorder and Capitol Studios, Los Angeles, California.
"I Want To Be In Love" was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
Personnel: Melissa Etheridge (vocals, guitar, mandolin, harmonica, keyboards, background vocals); David Cole (keyboards, programming, drum programming); Kenny Aronoff (drums); Gota Yashiki (loops); Meg Ryan (background vocals).
Audio Mixers: Chris Lord-Alge; David Cole; Matt Silva; Sylvia Massy.
Recording information: Capitol studios, Los Angeles, CA; The Village Recorder, Los Angeles, CA.
Photographer: Dan Winters.
The inspiration for some of music's greatest moments has been drawn from affairs of the heart. There is arguably no human factor more creatively fertile than the darker side of love. For Melissa Etheridge, tales of heartbreak and passionate anguish were far less apparent on 1999's emotionally subdued BREAKDOWN. Ironically, the breakup of the singer/songwriter's 12-year relationship gives SKIN a creative edge that she's had seemingly tucked away during her short-lived complacency.
The ten songs on SKIN are interwoven with a connecting thread of personal strength found in a time of turbulence. Expanding on this theme, Etheridge tackles most of the production duties alone as well as most of the instrumentation, save drums and bass. She incorporates drum loops and programmed percussion on much of SKIN, employing simple yet contemporary arrangements that bring fans full circle to her acoustic guitar-driven roots. "Lover Please" offers bombastic hooks, while "The Prison" nods to Etheridge's confessed influences of Springsteen and Dylan. "Down to One" is the track here that truly exemplifies Etheridge's growth as a writer. Openly wearing her heart on her sleeve throughout SKIN, Etheridge wants nothing more than to love and be loved, the primal need with which her fans make their connection to her music.
Critic Reviews

Rolling Stone (7/19/01, pp.50-2) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...A bare-it-all song cycle about a breakup....Both cathartic and redemptive, SKIN cuts close to the bone..."
Entertainment Weekly (7/20/01, p.68) - "...Her 'breakup' album...you're a voyeur to her emotional devastation...an often-compelling roots rock set..." - Rating: B-
Q (9/01, p.109) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A harrowing, clearly autobiographical dissection of a decaying relationship..."