ARTIST: Tarra Layne
Album: Introducing
Reviewer: Jaysen Gold
Score: 4 out of 5
If you are in the mood for some head banger blues music look no further than Tarra Layne’s debut effort. The 7 track EP opens with Stick Shift King (think Carrie Underwood Before He Cheats only less country and without the mean spirited lyrics), a Melissa Ethridge like uptempo number that puts you right in the passenger side with Tarra as the character in the song describes her bad boy dream man.
As the album progresses, you realize that if you are indeed one of the good guys, you will not find yourself dating Tara Layne because, it’s evident from the lyrics of songs like Druglessly and Makeup that she generally chooses the brooding bad boy type. If you close your eyes and listen to Druglessly, after you stop your head from keeping time to the mid tempo waltz, you’ll become a fly on the wall in Tarra’s room as she pines for her drug addicted boyfriend, wishing that he would love her without the help of his drug of choice.
The album closes with an acoustic version of a song heard earlier on the album called Beautiful Day, but perhaps the most stand out track on the album is the stripped down Makeup where Tarra explains that makeup doesn’t cover up the pain you feel after a terrible break up, the song sort of puts you in the mind of Katy Perry’s The One That Got Away mixed with Avril Lavigne’s When You’re Gone.
Overall a pretty good debut from Tarra Layne, if you’re looking for something you would hear on today’s top 40 stations, this is not the album for you but if you’re a big Janis Joplin, Joss Stone or Melissa Ethridge fan and you’ve just broken up with a cheating, mistreating bad boy, Tara Layne’s got just what the doctor ordered.
About The Author: Jaysen Gold has been a DJ in the Central PA area for 4 years working in the Country and Adult Contemporary format. Jaysen graduated Penn State with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and in his free time he enjoys writing and performing music.