Lennon
““5:30 Saturday Morning””
(Arista)
Lennon’s debut release starts off promising in spite of her name. To be fair, it’s actually her given name; Lennon Murphy in full. All the same, when you’re a wanna-be rock star, introducing yourself as “Lennon” isn’t the wisest move. Sure, Madonna got away with it, but she was invoking a religious icon, not a musical one. Whatever. The first track kinda-rocks and has a vaguely Kittiesque tone and title (“Property of Goatfucker”). The second one sounds a bit like Portishead the same sort of vocal filters and echos and the third track is reminiscent of Fiona Apple, without the clever lyrics and biting wit. Mid-disc, “I’m Asking,” offers a haunting refrain “Is this what you want me to be / To be anything you want me to be” but it’s really the production mix that deserves credit, not Lennon’s voice, which is unfailingly mediocre. Afterwards, the albums nods off into blah rock piano, as if Lennon would like very much to have Tori Amos’ talent, but instead settled for shouting more loudly and banging harder on the keys. 5:30 Saturday Morning is an almost total waste of 49:05 minutes. Listeners would be better served by going back to the originals (say, Dummy or Little Earthquakes) and wasting no time on this imitator.
