Product Description

Billie Myers is an artist with many faces. Her voice is a complex instrument capable of great subtlety and emotion. Oneminute the listener hears an echo of Tracy Chapman's bold bluesiness, the next minute, Myers is engaging in eccentric melisma a la Alanis. Produced by pop maven Desmond Child, GROWING PAINS lives and dies by the hook, and virtually every song has one big enough to hang William Perry's coat on. Fromthe celebratory opener "Kiss The Rain" to the moody, Eastern-flavoured "Tell Me", each track has Big Pop Hit stamped all over it. The production employs both lush pop sophistication and R&B rhythmic sensibilities for a cutting-edge feel.

Track Listing

1. Kiss The Rain
2. Few Words Too Many
3. Tell Me
4. You Send Me Flying
5. Please Don't Shout
6. First Time
7. Mother Daughter Sister Lover
8. Shark And The Mermaid
9. Having Trouble With The Language
10. Opposites Attract
11. Much Change Too Soon

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30859 in Music
• Released on: 1998-04-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Amazon.co.uk Review
Husky-voiced Billie Myers was discovered in a London club by a producer who saw her dancing and suggested that if she could sing as well as she moved her hips, she should give him a call. The seemingly tacky pickup line was actually a legitimate business proposition, and three years later Myers has a major-label debut to show for it. Produced by Desmond Child (not the initial dance-club Casanova, in case you were wondering), Growing Pains is a standard-issue rock record, clinging to every plodding 1980s aesthetic in the book. Smoldering guitar chords, synthetically programmed drum rhythms, and big splashy choruses earmark the disc, while Myers does her best to sound like a predictable cross between Alanis Morissette and Joan Armatrading. On "A Few Words Too Many", she conjures the indistinct balladry of John Waite, while on "Tell Me" she gets "exotic", thanks to the accompaniment of a flute and sitar. Sgt. Pepper's, this ain't. The funk-lite of "The Shark and the Mermaid" is slightly less annoying, but it's too little, too late in an album that willingly redefines the standards of blandness. --Aidin Vaziri

Customer Reviews

The Perfect Antidote to Growing Pains
I heard "Kiss the Rain" around 6 years ago on a compliation album, when Iwas 10-11 years old. I liked the song at the time, then around a year agoI rediscovered the CD and still loved it. So I began looking round forother stuff by Billie Myers and despite her limited success in the UK,found that she wasn't a one-hit wonder. "A Few Words too Many" and "TellMe" are my current favourites, but I'm getting the impression that this CDwill be hard to get out of stereo. Get it, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

OUTSTANDING DEBUT ALBUM OF "JAGGED LITTLE PILL" QUALITY.
Not much can be said about this album apart from BUY IT!. There is only one weak song on it (shark and the mermaid), The rest are brilliantly penned and sung. My personal favourite being "you send me flying". THIS ALBUM'S A MUST FOR LOVER'S OF ALANIS MORISSETTE AND NATALIE IMBRUGLIA.

buy it if u like alanis morissette
If you don't automatically like the song clips here, don't be put off. I only liked kiss the rain and much change too soon when i first bought it, but its another of those albums where repeated listening really improves your opinion. Good angsty style to listen to in your room. If you like alanis, you'll probably love it.