Heartspace Timepiece was made in Michigan but draws from personal experiences from all over the States.
Given that most of these involve messy break ups you feel the sound should be rawer particularly since many of the lyrics are more bitter than sweet. For example, on After Hours she sings with barely concealed venom "Nothing's coming through when you part your lips; you're just moving your mouth".
The album is billed as melodic rock and roll which is another way of saying pop. In other words, it's more Beatles than Stones.
O'Leary is backed by a full band but these songs would probably sound better as acoustic ballads or else could have been expanded to become more overtly Alt.Country. The latter direction is suggested by the pedal steel on Skin To Skin and the hint of twang on New Low.
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As it is, tracks like Talk Me Down ("you wanna piece of me") and Mine The Groove both strive to rock out but miss the mark largely because O'Leary's voice is more squeaky than raunchy
The album is destined to be filed under easy listening despite ambitions to be something more.
Alejandra O'Leary's website
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