Vertigo

Aesthetically-pleasing music that mutates as it plays.

Here's a music artiste who dares to be different - her lyrics are brilliant and have depth. Myers' songs are invested with varied, interesting beats, rhythms and lyrical themes, and she takes us through the tracks in her mature voice.

"Am I Here Yet (Return To Sender)" is a song that looks for directions in the future against the fused musical backtrack of "I Believe In Miracles" - an old hit recently heard on "The Full Monty" soundtrack. The result is a clever mix of old music with recording-studio manipulated Myers' voice. The song starts out as pop but ends in rap.

"Should I Call You Jesus" talks of the universality of God and the singer's conviction that there's a lot more to life than meets the eye. The track slows down mid-way and picks up again.

"Without My Consent", "A Room Full Of View" and "Roll Over Beethoven" are all concerned with breaking up with partners, but the first deals with the theme sarcastically, the second with genuine emotion, and the last uses a fun Caribbean dance beat in which Myers' talks of a partner so perfect, he's irritating. "Afraid Of Spiders" speaks of human frailty.

Billie Myers' music provides a refreshing change from the general fare. It mutates as it plays and although the style-switching might sound arbitrary, it does work aesthetically. Several of her songs draw on famous themes - "Flexible" plays a faint tone of James Bond music and "Where Romeo Never Dies" invokes Shakespeare.

The mood of this, her second album after "Growing Pains" (released 1997), is futuristic and strongly independent.

This article was first published on13 Nov 2000.