The evening of Sept. 21 is sure to be a great night for the music scene in the District. Why, you might ask? Ingrid Michaelson, queen of "Grey's Anatomy" and Old Navy commercials, returns to the 9:30 club. She is sure to bring tons of sass along with her as she promotes her new album, "Everybody," which just dropped in August.
Don't be fooled by what Ingrid you may have been exposed to, though. While her songs are a hit on the TV circuit, there is definitely more to this Staten Island native than meets the eye. Like her previous albums, "Girls and Boys" and "Be OK," Michaelson proves yet again that there is no need to over-complicate music -- her simple, yet powerful lyrics are accompanied only by slightly complex pianos, guitars, brass and drums.
"Everybody" has already reached the Billboard Top 20 Albums in the first few weeks since its release and has already reached number one on iTunes. Reuters, in reviewing her album, wrote: "Much like her approach to music, Michaelson's love story is strong, risky and mature."
Michaelson is just coming off a radio promotional tour, pushing forward her new album's first single, "Maybe," a light tune that embraces her strong, eloquent voice. She kicks off her new tour of the United States on Sept. 9, playing 46 different cities along the way.
Like her previous releases, Ingrid Michaelson released this album independently under her own label, Cabin 24 Records, showing that if done correctly, success off the popular site MySpace is very much a sustainable feat. With this record, Michaelson proves that she is not a one-hit wonder and that she is here to stay in the pop/folk/indie scene.
One of the reasons for her success is the fact that she has more creative freedom under her own label. Michaelson wrote all 12 songs, played piano and guitar on the record and also assisted on some arrangements and co-produced the album (along with producer Dan Romer). Michaelson has also led the way for the wave of artists bringing the ukulele into songs, as she does in "Maybe."
A few live favorites from the past years on this release have finally been recorded in the studio, including the title track, "Everybody," which is probably the strongest song on the record due to its sheer, perfect simplicity. Another crowd favorite, "The Chain," is a song sung as a round, capturing the dense tone fans love to hear live.
Michaelson achieves delightful balance in "Everybody" by adding ballads like "Sort Of" and "Incredible Love," a song with a jazz/blues undertone to it. Critics may say that she talks about love too often, but Michaelson vehemently responds back on her Twitter, saying "...on a side note, I will say the word 'LOVE' as many times as I feel necessary."
Precision is a word that comes to mind both in Michaelson's live sets and her studio arrangements, with her almost fragile voice beautifully colliding to the background arrangements. It seems that her Bachelor's in theater (from the State University of New York-Binghamton) has done her well, allowing her to follow and embrace the crowd with her charm and sense of humor. She recognizes how much change is needed in order to keep an audience alive and engaged. She keeps the crowd on their toes by adding parodies of her songs that people have covered on YouTube with the incorrect lyrics to her set, or even singing Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" to the melody of her hit heard around the world "The Way I Am." As to what songs Ingrid will play on this headlining tour, we are not quite sure, but it is without a doubt that her show at the 9:30 club will be one to look forward to this fall.
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
