Mandy Moore Goes 'Wild' on New Album

Staff Writer

      Back in 2000 when there were four pop princesses battling each other on the charts, who knew that seven years later Mandy Moore would prove to have more talent than Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Jessica Simpson combined? Not many saw this coming.

   Known for her debut hit single “Candy,” Moore’s pop efforts weren’t as successful as her competitors.  From 1999 to 2001, the albums “So Real,” “I Wanna Be with You” (a re-release of her first album) and “Mandy Moore” were released. Each one failed to make a significant mark on the charts.

Courtesy of Moore-Central.net

New - Mandy Moore released "Wild Hope" in June 2007. Moore also shared songwriting credits with other artist.

   The single “Cry” from her self-titled third album hit radio as promotion for her acting debut in the box office hit “A Walk to Remember.”

   In 2003, Moore released “Coverage,” an album of cover songs from the '70s and '80s. She covered Cat Stevens, Elton John, Carole King, Carly Simon, John Hiatt and Joni Mitchell, as well as others. She began to shed her teen image and showcase herself as a more mature artist.

   As her roles in the films “How to Deal,” “All I Want,” “Chasing Liberty,” “Saved,” “American Dreamz,” “Because I Said So,” “License to Wed” and “Dedication” matured, so did she in song writing. In the four-year break from the music industry, she co-wrote a new album that would define her as an original artist.

  She released “Wild Hope,” an album crossing the line from pop to folk, in June 2007. Joining Moore on songwriting credits are Lori McKenna, The Weepies, Chantel Kreviazuk and Michelle Branch.

   Despite positive reviews from Billboard and Jane magazines, the album peaked at No. 30 on the sales charts. However, the lack of sales does not take away from the impressive quality of the record.

   She begins the album with the breezy single “Extraordinary.”

   “I was a starling / Nobody's darling / Flying in perfect circles / Just for company / And now I'm ready / And now I'm ready / And now I'm ready to be / Extraordinary,” she sings.

   The song lightens the mood set for the rest of the album.  Clever lyrics and simple melodies make this track exactly what the title suggests – extraordinary.

   Letting go never seems to be easy, but she makes the best of the situation with “All Good Things.”

   “Lost inside of my head / Empty side of the bed / I fill this place without you / I keep pushing the blues / 'Cause I don't wanna lose / What I loved about you / All good things / I wish you /
All good things / Come to an end / All good things / I wish you well,” she bids her lost love.

   “All Good Things” features pure vocals that shine over soft music creating a brilliant pop-folk ballad.

   She goes up in tempo for “Slummin’ in Paradise.”  By the end of the song, you too will be singing along, “slummin’” with her.

   “Don't worry about yourself at all / I'll hang your work up on my wall / Hose you down and dress you up real nice / With some brand new plans and a fancy car / Try to place your superstar / 'Cause you can tell the story of your life / Without slummin' in paradise,” she sings.

   The next song, “Most of Me,” begins a series of masterpieces.  With painted, honest words Moore, McKenna and The Weepies work magic with their pens.

   “I'm not ready to confront / I'd rather cement my words this way / This could be the easy road out / But I'm just not all that happy / So I'm writing all this down / And I'll file it in a drawer someday / In lieu of a conversation / We'd probably forget to have anyway / I won't hold anything back / And I won't hold anything in / Feel like I know where this is going / And I might know how it ends / But I'm still / Willing to begin."

   The second I heard this song, the vulnerability and rawness of Moore’s voice cemented itself into my mind. Hands down, Moore stands at the door to becoming the lyrical genius of this century.

   “I expect you to fly from New York to L.A. / And land on my doorstep / And smile at me and say / It was worth it to see most of me / Do you love most of me?” she continues.

   The song “Few Days Down” came to me at a time when I attempted juggling several activities at one time.  Her words were comfort during a stressful time.

Courtesy of Moore-Central.net

  “And all that you want / Is a few days down / All that you need / A little time to drown / It's to be expected / With all the weight you carry 'round / All that you want is / A few days down,” she sings.

   She called upon McKenna to help write an autobiographical track called “Can’t You Just Adore Her?”

   “She likes chocolate in the morning / She drinks her coffee late at night / You can sense that she is guarded / But that's alright / She'll fall asleep while your still talking / With unfinished books beside her bed / She'll cancel all of her appointments / And go shopping instead / And in spite of what is right / Far beyond what she'd expect / When the moon begs the question / Will you have the answer yet? / Can't you just adore her?” she sings to a man in her life.

   Again, her voice sounds magnificent as she changes the last lines of the song to say, “I like chocolate in the morning / I drink my coffee late at night.”

   When things turn down an unsuspecting path, at the time you don’t grasp what you’ll hold close to your heart, but “Looking Back on These Days” shines a new light on that situation.

   “I know you loved me in your way / I'm looking forward to looking back on these days / And I'm fine, but I'm not OK / I'm looking forward to looking back on these days / The fog in the morning clouded the world that we knew / It was almost enough being lonely and living for you / And the rain came to our window / And I wish I could've stayed." 

   The title track “Wild Hope” follows.

   “In the crazy world / Anything can happen / If you will it to / I'm just a hazy girl / Blurring all the edges / Only seeing blue / It's a wild hope / A wild hope / A wild hope / Everything will be alright,” she sings in a melodic tone.

   The way she sings the lyrics with the music creates a hypnotic vibe that pulls you in just to listen to her voice sing her colorful words.

   Writing tends to be a form of free therapy for Moore.  A bitter relationship spawned the track “Nothing that You Are.”

   “I heard you say / We were one and the same / We'll wrong again / I could never do those things you did to me / I will be OK / In time you'll fade / Into the nothing that you are / The nothing you are,” she sings strumming the memories away on her guitar.

   “Somebody sold me, yeah the same old story / Hadn't you told me, you were there the whole time / Well, I must be mistaking you for somebody else / I hope you burn in hell, or do I?” continues the burned songbird.

Courtesy of Moore-Central.net

   The next song may be titled “Latest Mistake,” but Moore and McKenna’s partnership in writing does not deserve that title.

   “There is part of me that wants an answer / And part of me that doesn't want to know / Part of you that I am in love with / And the part that I am willing to let go / This is a delicate unraveling / Now and then I find pieces on the floor / Tiny little bits that tell me / Maybe I shouldn't do this /  Or love you anymore."

   “Ladies Choice” sounds like a throwback from the late '60s. The arrangement captivates you from the opening lines. Unfortunately, the title does not seem to fit the song.

   “Goodbye, sweetheart / Countdown started / Words are heavy / But I'm far from broken hearted / Goodbye stranger / I'll take the fall / Lies were tempting / You know you never really threw me off at all / Go ahead / Waste your time / Count me out / Take your place at the end of the line / Raise a glass / No surprise / Here's to us at the end of the line,” she sings on the classic song.

   Moore ends her album with the ballad “Gardenia.”

   In 18 years of appreciating music, I have never heard a song this mesmerizing. Her vocals soar to places out of this world singing lyrics full of beauty and pain.

   “Well, I put so much thought into getting ready / Now I know that was the best part / It's so easy to get caught up in what I'm regretting / Forget what I got from a wounded heart,” she boldly sings with a piano backing her.

   Moments later she continues, “I'm the one who likes gardenia / I'm the one who likes to make love on the floor / I don't want to hang up the phone yet / It's been good / Getting to know me more.”

   Moore stepped outside the box on this album. The 16-year-old who sang “Candy," now grown into a talented artist, owns every right to call her first albums “awful,” as she did in many magazine and television interviews. She even joked that she would refund money to anyone who bought the albums. When a radio host questioned that comment, she gave him his money back for her first album.

   What makes this album and this artist so special? Perhaps its because she turned out to be the dark horse in the pop race? While Spears, Simpson and Aguilera were in and out of tabloids, Moore made a name for herself as a serious actress and an established songwriter.

   “Wild Hope,” one of the best albums of the last two years, brings a refreshing sound to the music industry, a sound that went unheard because news of the album and publicity were scarce. It does not contain the fluff on the radio these days, it contains 100 percent real music from a genuine artist just getting her feet wet in a new direction we can expect great things from.

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