Review: Vanessa Carlton, Heroes & Thieves

Heroes & Thieves finds Vanessa Carlton simply coasting.

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Vanessa Carlton, Heroes & ThievesIf 2004’s Harmonium allowed Vanessa Carlton to spread her wings and reach new heights as a songwriter, then her follow-up, Heroes & Thieves (her first in a new deal with Irv Gotti’s The Inc.), finds her simply coasting. “Nolita Fairytale” joins Carlton’s already impressive list of exceptional singles, matching her lilting piano and vocal melodies with shuffling marching-band drums and autobiographical lyrics that espouse the virtues of life without a record deal and fashion week (“Nolita flat on rent control, that’s the life I choose,” she sings proudly), but the album as a whole is less experimental, less gothic, and the arrangements less intricate than its predecessor. Though it’s not an unwise move, commercially speaking (the title track will be music to the ears of fans of the singer’s “A Thousand Miles”), and there are hints of that adventurousness throughout (particularly in the coda of the pretty ballad “Home,” which displays Carlton’s prodigious classical training, and in the subtle Eastern influences of “Hands on Me,” the small, brief choir of which is reprised in full on the album’s rousing closer, “More Than This”), a pair of contributions from producer Linda Perry proves too conventional for the slightly left-of-center singer-songwriter. Carlton’s voice continues to mature (there’s a gritty quality to her vocals on songs like “Fools Like Me,” and the earthiness of guest Stevie Nicks’s alto harmonies on the country-leaning “The One” tempers Carlton’s more reedy lead vocal), but the material in general isn’t exactly what you’d expect from an artist who left the nest in search of creative freedom and appreciation, making Heroes & Thieves somewhat less rewarding than her last album.

Score: 
 Label: The Inc.  Release Date: October 9, 2007  Buy: Amazon

Sal Cinquemani

Sal Cinquemani is the co-founder and co-editor of Slant Magazine. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Village Voice, and others. He is also an award-winning screenwriter/director and festival programmer.

1 Comment

  1. Vanessa Carlton is one of my most favorite female pop music artists, and she has always have been ever since she came into the music industry back in the year, 2002 (that was the year that I graduated from high school). I bought her, “Heroes & Thieves” album when it was released on October 9, 2007. It was ashame that the album was a commercial failure because it debuted at number 44 and it only sold 18,200 copies over here in the United States when it was released on the first week. In my personal opinion, I think that it was one of the best pop albums of 2002. Due to its commercial failure, the album only released 2 singles, “Nolita Fairytale” and “Hands On Me”. As of the year, 2011, the album went on and sold only 75,000 copies over here in the United States. Vanessa should have released the song, “Heroes & Thieves” because I think that the album would sell more copies over here in the United States, but it didn’t and it is one of my favorite songs on the album.

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