Lea Michele released her second solo studio album, Places, to the world April 18. Michele is most known for her role as Rachel Berry in the TV musical drama, Glee. This being said, her solo career has not been as successful as it could be. Places had next-to-no promotion. This makes it hard for people to find and listen to the album. However, the album can be a pleasant listening experience.
This album is almost all acoustic, as it has almost no EDM or computer-generated music. Most of it is Michele singing over piano chords. This makes for a tone and sound that is nice to listen to. The sound she makes with these simple instrumentations provides a nice background for the real star of the album, her voice.
Michele has an incredible voice. It is powerful when it needs to be, but it can also be soft. She makes use of her versatile voice well in this album. Michele’s voice is full of vibrato and resembles Celine Dion’s voice at times, which is a great thing. This album has a major downfall, however.
The songwriting of this album is subpar, both lyrically and musically. All of the songs sound the same, especially those that don’t get as much attention, such as the tracks “Proud” and “Heavenly.” At times it is hard to differentiate between songs. This makes the album seem unending and exhausting. It feels like listening to this album is the equivalent of running a marathon, without the satisfaction of actually finishing. The album just ends, with no clear resolution. Also, the lyrics in the songs don’t have any real meaning. The lack of meaning within the lyrics make this album seem even longer.
This album is okay. It is not anything fantastic. The acoustic, real music factors give it points, but the lack of songwriting prowess make this album unpassable. Despite Michele’s fantastic vocals, this album receives a 3/10.