ok, so heres the deal, my English teacher is really cool, and gave my class the username and password to our school's
ProQuest account, so we could search proquest at home, instead of at our school librarys
and blah blah blah, i searched Vanessa Carlton, and got a bunch of newspaper articles and what not.
(sorry, proquest doesn't show images, just tells you when one was there)
this ones from November 30th 2004,"NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. The Record. Bergen County, N.J." ::
Abstract (Document Summary)
"I am kind of an alternative to kind of the very popular hip-hop stuff and other really mainstream pop artists," says the 24-year- old singer-songwriter, sitting in a studio at New York's famed Hits Factory. "I'm an alternative to the Simpson girls."
[Vanessa Carlton] has done well by defining herself as the alternative to commercial pop; with her first album, the brunette was cast as one of the emerging anti-Britneys - female artists who wrote their own material, played their own instruments and rejected the role of pop's oversexed vixen.
PHOTO - ASSOCIATED PRESS - Vanessa Carlton isn't angling for the sexy pop star image.
Full Text (719 words)
(Copyright 2004 North Jersey Media Group Inc.)
It's hard to imagine a more pop debut than Vanessa Carlton's.
Her piano-infused "A Thousand Miles" became an anthem of 2002, garnered her three Grammy nominations and helped her sell more than 2 million copies of "Be Not Nobody," her first album.
But as she releases her sophomore set, "Harmonium," Carlton prefers to define herself as out of the mainstream.
"I am kind of an alternative to kind of the very popular hip-hop stuff and other really mainstream pop artists," says the 24-year- old singer-songwriter, sitting in a studio at New York's famed Hits Factory. "I'm an alternative to the Simpson girls."
Carlton has done well by defining herself as the alternative to commercial pop; with her first album, the brunette was cast as one of the emerging anti-Britneys - female artists who wrote their own material, played their own instruments and rejected the role of pop's oversexed vixen.
Carlton hopes to cast herself next as a career artist instead of the hot singer of the moment.
Q. You were among a rising group of female singer-songwriters considered an alternative to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Do you feel you were lumped in with other artists?
I did, but I thought that the trend of that time probably helped propel me forward. When you're part of a trend, it tends to be easier to kind of break through, and at this point now I'm just kind of standing on my own and it feels nice to be one of the few people that are doing what I am attempting to do. I'm not really scared by it at all. To walk the bold path is not something that I'm not afraid of, and if I'm releasing a song to radio and it's the only song on radio that sounds that way, that to me is a plus as opposed to me being concerned that I'm not fitting a preconceived mold.
Q. What was the whirlwind like when you were nominated for the Grammys?
It kind of went over my head. ... it's all going at such a fast pace that it doesn't feel easy, it just feels like it's whipping through your fingers as it's happening and there's no real way to absorb it or appreciate it, and that was really what was happening. Now I don't think it would be like that.
Q. Do you think this album is more of a mature record?
I think the album is a reflection of a more womanly point of view on the world. There was something kind of innocent and girlish about the first record. ... But with that said, I tend to have a very wholesome image. I don't really strip or do anything like that.
Q. You haven't done the Maxim layout?
(Laughs) No, and I don't have a desire to, because the bottom line is I feel womanly and sexy and confident. ... I feel like taking off all of your clothes [is] doing it to get attention from men, and I don't feel like I need to fight for it. I feel sexy in pajamas. I think as a woman growing up in this society, it's really easy, dangerously easy, to kind of fall into the trappings of what your image should be, how you should look. The expectation for women has gotten about out of hand. I try to separate myself from the whole thing.
Q. How do you not fall into that? So many women have vowed to never do it, and then a few months later they're showing skin.
Well, I think that I'm perfectly happy that my brain is bigger than my boobs, and that's quite all right with me. There's a pressure to stay thin and pretty, but I don't feel a pressure to be naked or get a boob job or anything like that. I'm sure I would sell more records ... but I couldn't care less. I have friends and family and a boyfriend, and I don't have to prove myself to anyone. And with that said, I definitely have one of the better [behinds] in the music industry, and no one will see it because I'm sitting at the piano!
[Illustration]
Caption: PHOTO - ASSOCIATED PRESS - Vanessa Carlton isn't angling for the sexy pop star image.
JOAN ANDERMAN. Boston Globe. Boston, Mass.: Nov 12, 2004. p. D.11 ::
Abstract (Document Summary)
With her 2002 debut, [VANESSA CARLTON] arrived in the post-Lilith music world as the thinking girl's pop tart. She combined serious classical piano chops with pop hooks, ambitious songwriting with a breezy vibe -- a serious and youthful style of musical introspection that was summed up nicely in the album's syntactically challenged yet inspirational title, "Be Not Nobody."
Full Text (237 words)
Copyright New York Times Company Nov 12, 2004
WEEKEND / MUSIC / CD REPORT
With her 2002 debut, Vanessa Carlton arrived in the post-Lilith music world as the thinking girl's pop tart. She combined serious classical piano chops with pop hooks, ambitious songwriting with a breezy vibe -- a serious and youthful style of musical introspection that was summed up nicely in the album's syntactically challenged yet inspirational title, "Be Not Nobody." Her follow-up, "Harmonium," trods the same lush, circuitous path though the vagaries of love and mysteries of life -- with a few new developments. Now 24, Carlton is of age to reminisce, and she surveys her confused youth with a bit of perspective on the bright, cinematic first single "White Houses." She also has a boyfriend, Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins, who did a lovely job producing the disc and has gone a long way toward tempering Carlton's angst. This is a confident album, if not the work of art Carlton clearly set out to make. There are no hooks here, only sweet, complicated melodies swathed in Carlton's circular keyboard voicings, delicate layers of guitars, washes of cello and brass, colorful percussion, and ethereal Stephan-and-Vanessa vocal overdubs. But while the sonics are sharp and focused, the material's earnest reach exceeds its grasp. Like a sunnier Fiona Apple or a simpler Tori Amos, Carlton plumbs her piano and her poetry for answers to questions she's not quite savvy or seasoned enough to pose.
The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: Nov 10, 2004. p. C.05 Copyright The Washington Post Company Nov 10, 2004
HARMONIUM
Vanessa Carlton
Afew years ago, you might remember, Vanessa Carlton was part of a mini-movement of young female artists who played instruments and wrote their own songs -- a development regarded, then as now, as a bit of a novelty.
With the release of her sophomore disc, "Harmonium," Carlton becomes the last artist from the class of 2002 to issue a follow- up: In the interim, classmate Avril Lavigne has gone on to become, rather tediously, a faux-punk anti-Britney; Alicia Keys has become a new-school version of Roberta Flack; and Michelle Branch has gone on to do, well, whatever it is Michelle Branch does.
Carlton was always the hardest of the group to quantify, equally suggestive of an even gloomier Fiona Apple or an earnest English lit major, depending on the song. "Harmonium," a dark, meditative collection of piano-based pop tracks, hews decidedly toward the former. While Carlton's melodies have gotten roomier and more complex, her lyrics are more morose, more airless, than ever, and as a result the disc lacks even the occasional crackle of the singer's debut.
The suicide ballad "She Floats" offers some nicely creepy, Ophelia-like imagery, and "C'est La Vie" adds some desperately needed muscle, but "Harmonium" mostly feels like an album without a center, despite the presence of first single "White Houses," a lively coming-of-age ballad that pleasantly, purposefully evokes Carlton's previous blockbuster "A Thousand Miles." On a serviceable, perfectly respectable outing full of floaty, indistinctly pretty tracks, it's the best thing going.
-- Allison Stewart
NICK MARINO, PAUL V. GRIFFITH, RON HARRIS, A.D. AMOROSI. The Atlanta Journal - Constitution. Atlanta, Ga.: Nov 9, 2004. p. E.10 ::
(Copyright, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution - 2004)
POP Vanessa Carlton
"Harmonium." Anti-. 11 tracks.
Grade: A-
In a plebeian world of young lip-syncers (hello, Ashlee) and dancing dummies, a musician-composer as thoughtful as 24-year-old Vanessa Carlton stands out. Her provocative melodramas are godly symphonies to teenagers.
With producer-beau Stephan Jenkins lending gruff weight to angelic choirs, slicing strings, and richly rolling pianissimos, Carlton's pointed prose yearns for the hissing of summer lawns, coffee-filled conversations, first kisses in "San Francisco" and friends whose strengths counter her neuroses on "Annie."
Sometimes, seasons in the sun get messy, as in the rhythmically halting "C'est La Vie" and the adult lullaby "White Houses." With a maturity matching Carlton's age, her breathy squeal reveals the aches of summer love and the sometimes-shocking falls that come with autumn. Perfect.
--- A.D. Amorosi, Knight Ridder Newspapers
Edna Gundersen, Elysa Gardner, Steve Jones, Brian Mansfield. USA TODAY. McLean, Va.: Nov 9, 2004. p. D.3 ::
(Copyright (c) 2004 USA Today)
Music reviews by USA TODAY critics
Vanessa Carlton, Harmonium ( * * * ) Carlton's second CD is that rare coming-of-age project that feels neither corny nor calculated. Enlisting Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins as producer and sometime co-writer, the 24-year-old unveils songs that seem sharper and more intimate than those on her debut, yet still retain sweetness. The single, White Houses, and Who's to Say capture the dewy wonder and confusion of young love, while Private Radio and Half a Week Before the Winter reject navel-gazing in favor of a crisply moody intensity. Few artists of Carlton's generation could make growing pains sound this convincing or endearing. -- Elysa Gardner
ok thats all for now.( i didnt feel like going before Nov9th.)
