First impressions are important. They get you that dream job. They get that second car salesman to give you a 10% discount off the sticker price. They get the local drug dealer to leave you alone as you appear to be even more psychotic than he is (that might just be me though so don’t try that yourself). So, as the voices in my head often say, what were my first thoughts on “Business of Healing” by MeMo?
Well, this is most certainly the product of the big city and the album has all the hallmarks of an actress on the make. Is that a bad thing? Actually not, for the MeMo way is to bring the kind of Carole King after an extended spell on the cappuccinos lyrics together with the camp melodrama and near religious fervour that can only ever have been borne of the off Broadway stage.
There are songs of the heart and there are songs from the heart here yet there is a glorious lack of sentimentality on show as MeMo and her band of, no doubt disreputable, minstrels aim all they do at the back row of the auditorium. Let’s face it. This album could be a soundtrack to a musical. Maybe even a hit musical.
In conclusion, MeMo doesn’t put a foot wrong here and, with commendable fervour and literacy, she spins up her song writing warp drive and heads off towards the star that she probably will, and should, be.
One for my baby and one for the road to success methinks.
Album available from Bandcamp.
Best song: The showtune splendour that is “Untouchable”.