“I miss my home / But there’s a fire burning in my bones,” horrifically cliched and creatively drained lyrics like this are just one of the horcruxes for an album plagued by lifeless and unidentifiable singer-songwriter pop.
Platten’s songwriting style can be broken down into two parts: forced rhymes and disconnected imagery; the latter mystically leading people to the belief that Platten is somehow an original and decent lyricist. She shamelessly indulges in overdone lines and ideas: “I’m a lion, I’m a tiger / I’m a caged bird, I’m on fire.” Make no mistake, just because this 34-year-old writes her own songs doesn’t mean she has a sliver of the maturity, wisdom, and sensibility as any 16-year-old slam poet in the country.
Over-produced, bland pop productions try but fail to hide the faults of the lyricism. Each song stuffs as many elements of 2015 Adult Contemporary and Top 40 Mainstream production as possible; from fluttering synths in “Angels in Chelsea” to the bombastic drums that can be found in almost every single track, there’s nothing on the album that one couldn’t find in a ten-second snippet of any Sia song. Even worse, the album offers the 47th rip-off of Sara Bareilles’ “Brave” that we’ve heard since it’s 2013 release: “Stand By You.”
“Fight Song” may have been a guilty pleasure with its easily memorizable lyrics and melody, but you’re better off staying far away from the rest of this album.
