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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Kendall Payne

KENDALL PAYNE
"JORDAN'S SISTER"
(Capitol, 1999)


Ten years before "Glee", co-creator Ryan Murphy started out in television with "Popular", an hour-long comedy-drama, also set in high-school and with a similarly larger-than-life style, that ran for two years on the WB network. Chosen for the theme song to the series was the track "Supermodels" from Kendall Payne's debut album "Jordan's Sister". It was the perfect choice: a pointed commentary on body image versus self-worth, a struggle that the majority of teenagers go through at some point, and one of the ongoing themes of the entire series. I loved the show and its theme song so much, that I decided it was worth giving the album a try.

For a debut album by a nineteen-year-old, "Jordan's Sister" is a remarkably mature work, and sees Kendall Payne following in the finest singer-songwriter tradition of her contemporaries like Paula Cole, Joan Osborne, and Sheryl Crow. Sure, she's got an assist from veteran, award-winning producer Ron Aniello, but listening to this album, one can easily get the impression that she probably didn't need his help. Just check out the tuneful, upbeat tracks "Hollywood", "Closer To Myself", and "It's Not The Time", or the beautiful, delicate ballads like "Honest", "On My Bones", and "Wonderland".

The album may not be perfect -- her lyrics are often straightforward instead of subtle, and can therefore tend to seem out-of-place alongside such keenly composed melodies -- and her strong religious faith occasionally forces its way into the songs, and I much prefer my music to stay cleanly secular -- but the songs as a whole are catchy and enjoyable enough that I can look past these arguable shortcomings. This was Ms. Payne's only major-label release, but she's kept recording on independent labels since then, her fourth and most recent album appearing in 2009.

Buy it digitally on iTunes
Buy it on CD from Amazon

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