As an example of how one of the alternative rock era’s most prominent women can assert herself in the “Since U Been Gone” era with respect for both her own work and for pop-rock’s current trajectory, Nina Gordon’s Bleeding Heart Graffiti is the exact opposite of Liz Phair’s embarrassing Somebody’s Miracle. For the Veruca Salt singer, it’s also a far more interesting album than her solo debut, 2000’s Tonight and the Rest of My Life. Charting the course of an ill-fated year-long relationship over the album’s 11 songs (and three brief interludes), Gordon’s at her best when she’s angry (“Turn on your radio/And listen to these words as I repeat them/You have lost me/You have lost me” is the refrain of the standout “Turn On Your Radio”), but she does vulnerability and disappointment as well as any of her contemporaries. While she may not have the pipes of a Kelly Clarkson or Pink, she’s a far warmer vocalist than either of them (or, in her own age bracket, Aimee Mann or Phair), and she has a better ear for a pop melody than, say, KT Tunstall. Smart, expertly produced by Bob Rock (who produced Veruca Salt’s Eight Arms to Hold You and, more recently, Joan Jett’s Sinner), and boasting some of the year’s strongest melodic hooks, the only thing keeping Bleeding Heart Graffiti from being relevant is Warner Bros.’s nearly nonexistent promotion.
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