The O.C. might have been the first network primetime show to really utilize an indie soundtrack (QRO’s Music of The O.C.), but even after that program’s demise, others have kept it up, from Foreign Born (QRO album review) appearing on the series premiere of Chuck to The Polyphonic Spree (QRO album review) appearing on an episode of Scrubs, to the show that’s maybe most taken up the mantle, Grey’s Anatomy. Okay, you may hate the hit ABC hospital show, with its bed-hopping doctors, ‘McDreamy’, and rants from Katherine Heigl (actually, if you don’t, why don’t you?…), but it’s utilized a whole host of indie music. One of the most prevalent has been alt-pop/folk singer/songwriter Ingrid Michaelson, and her new album, Everybody, is kind of the same way: you may find it & her too mainstream, too ‘coffee house’ in a Starbucks way, but you also can’t deny that it’s an enjoyable listen.
If Michaelson is mainstream-acceptable (and, in general, that’s not necessarily a bad thing), one of the primary reasons has to be her way with catch and hooks. Her upbeat tracks on Everybody, like opener “Soldier”, or later numbers “Locked Up” and single/closer “Maybe”, are so enjoyable that you don’t care that they could be called ‘adult contemporary’. Her catch lifts even the otherwise too-cute title track, and the pop hooks bring up “Mountain and the Sea”.
Michaelson is still a female singer/songwriter, so she’s naturally going to have sad, emotional songs, but she wisely spreads out their style, from the subdued heart-touch of “Are We There Yet” to the building & building & building “The Chain”. She is better when she’s growing – the back-to-back piano-based “Men of Snow” and plucking “So Long” are both too cute in their restraint, but the following “Once Was Love” not only grows into power, but also brings in the hook of the brighter tracks on Everybody.
Indie musicians are having an even tougher time making money these days, so the residuals from getting a song on a show like Grey’s Anatomy have stopped being ‘selling out’ and started being “Means I can like, pay my rent, when the money comes…” (The Jealous Girlfriends’ Holly Miranda – QRO interview). And while mainstream shows like Grey’s might be full of divas like Heigl, Ingrid Michaelson isn’t (though she does have one jazz-diva-esque number on the new album, “Incredible Love”). Instead, on Everybody, her alt-pop/folk hooks you in enough that you don’t care that it’s network.
MP3 Stream: “Once Was Love”
