I was in my music management teacher's office yesterday, looking through his Billboards, and found one with Vanessa on the cover. So I read the article. It's really good I think! Good size too... Billboard doesn't put the full articles online, and I don't have a scanner, so I typed it out for you all. The first part of the article is over a big picture of her. One of the "Harmonium" pictures, where she's looking over her shoulder, lounging in a fancy chair and wearing a short blue dress.
November 13th Issue of Billboard. On pages 13 and 73.
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Carlton Strikes a Balance With Sophomore Set
BY JILL KIPNIS
LOS ANGELES--Vanessa Carlton is realistic.
She knows today’s musical environment is not always friendly toward pop-oriented artists who play their instruments and write their own songs as she does.
In fact, Carlton says she is gladly straddling the fence between “being true to myself as a musician and being embraced commercially” with her sophomore album, “Harmonium,” due Nov. 9 from A&M/Interscope Records.
“It’s nice to be back and be the alternative to the more calculated, poppy acts out there,” the 24-year-old artist says. “I feel lucky that I’m able to appeal to real music lovers, and it also somehow works in a really commercial way without me sacrificing or selling myself out.”
The 10-track “Harmonium,” which was produced by Carlton’s beau, Third Eye Blind’s Stephen Jenkins, and executive-produced by Carlton and A&M Records president Ron Fair, indeed showcases her coming into her own. The album is full of beautiful, classical-leaning piano riffs and features more heartfelt lyrics than the 2002 debut, “Be Not Nobody.”
“The first album was more formal. It was Vanessa Carlton in an elegant party dress,” Fair notes. “This is her in Birkenstocks and jeans.”
Though the new album’s first single, “White Houses,” has so far not shown the signs of success that debut single, “A Thousand Miles” did, retailers and radio programmers are optimistic about the song’s and album’s potential.
A SLOW BUILD
Fair admits that marketing Carlton is far different from promoting some of today’s young, female pop artists, particularly after the huge success of “A Thousand Miles.”
That song topped the Adult Contemporary chart for seven weeks and the Mainstream Top 40 chart for five. It spent 41 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at No.5. Additionally, the song reached No.2 on the Adult Top 40 chart.
“White Houses” is No.28 with a bullet on the Mainstream Top 40 chart. The song gained 94 spins last week.
“Lindsey Lohan and Hilary Duff and Ashlee Simpson are prominent media and television stars, and their music is an extension of their overall image,” Fair says. “Vanessa is a singer/songwriter in the classic sense. ‘A Thousand Miles’ is just one piece of the story of this artist. It’s time to move on and write other chapters.”
Part of the strategy, Fair says, involves building “White Houses,” co-written by Carlton and Jenkins, at radio.
Carlton calls “White Houses,” which features an upbeat tempo and building piano chord progressions, a “metaphor for simple innocence. It’s about the irony of these simple mundane places that hold so much controversy and pain and triumph all at the same time.”
Tracy Austin, PD at mainstream top 40 KRBE Houston, says the lyrics “really touched somebody who is growing up, particularly daughters and moms.”
The station gave “White Houses” 27 spins last week. Austin says the track “sounds really great on the air. It might take a little more time than ‘A Thousand Miles’ because it’s more of a passive hit.”
Likewise, retailers say it could be tough for “Harmonium” to mirror the sales of “Be Not Nobody.”
Carlton’s debut has sold 1.4 million units, according to Nielson SoundScan. The album, which earned the artists four Grammy Award nominations, peaked at No.5 on The Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for 51 weeks.
“When you look at an artist like that, who had an initial huge hit, the follow-up is a challenge,” says Chris Richards, music buyer at Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Border’s Books & Music chain. “The new album retains the same qualities of the first. She is one of the pure-hearted girls, very squeaky clean and parent-approved.”
Carlton’s reach is also expected to grow through upcoming tour dates and TV appearances, including “The View” (Nov. 10) and “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” (Nov. 16).
She also wants to branch out into other musical outlets.
“After this album, I’d like to score a film,” Carlton says. “That’s something I want to get into, because I know I could be 65 and wrinkly and still be writing music. I’m also looking to incorporate dance, maybe go into theater or Broadway, and incorporate all the things that I do and love so much into one production or show.”
