Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
Meghan Trainor, Sony Music 2020
American songstress, Meghan Trainor burst onto the scene in 2015 with her first major label release, Title, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 and went on to be certified Triple Platinum.
Treat Myself is the follow-up and it is already proving itself to be a worthy successor.
The singles, Wave, Workin’ On It (featuring Lennon Stella and Sash Sloan), and the latest Nice To Meet Ya (featuring Nicki Minaj) are charting strongly and the album is loaded with more potential catchy tracks to be released as follow-up singles.
A careful listen to the album reveals an interesting amalgam of musical genres that have been cleverly blended to create Meghan’s signature style.
It has been noted by other reviewers that Meghan has a “throw-back” musical style that is heavily influenced by the 50s and 60s.
Meghan’s songs are a blend of Do-Wop, R&B, Pop and Soul glued together by Hip-Hop. It’s a formula that works well for her most of the time, although I sometimes find the transitions somewhat clunky.
She states that the songs of Frank Sinatra were one of her biggest influences.
I don’t hear that influence in the music, but perhaps it’s there to some extent in her lyrics, which are one of her major areas of focus.
She’s been quoted as saying: “They don’t write songs like that anymore, because it’s hard”.
Meghan’s admiration for the craftmanship of the Brill Building writers such as Gerry Goffin, Carole King and Neil Sedaka is commendable, and I do find her lyrical content quite interesting.
Musically, the impact of the recording studio is very prevalent – especially in the use of computer-generated sounds – and it often left me wishing that she had just put a group of hot musicians together and let the juices flow.
But that is quite an old-fashioned approach, which is ironically more in keeping with her stated likes and interests.
It is, however, much harder and not as suitable to the Hip-Hop that ties everything together.
