release date: Mar. 20, 2004
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,64]
producer: Gordon Raphael, Skin
label: V2 - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: 1. "Alone in My Room" - 3. "Movin' " (4 / 5) - 4. "Just Let the Sun" - 5. "Purple" (4 / 5) - 6. "Don't Need a Reason" - 7. "Nothing But" - 10. "Falling for You" (5 / 5)
2nd solo album by Skin following 3 years after Fleshwounds (May 2003 - not counting the re-issue) now with American producer Gordon Raphael. For the ten tracks, Skin has teamed up with various composers. Only two songs (tracks #9 & #10) are written with Len Arran, with whom she wrote most songs on her debut and musch of the material with Skunk Anansie. Four tracks have been made with composer and guitarist Paul Draper of English alt. rock band Mansun, two songs are Skin's own, and she made the fine "Purple" with Scottish songwriter Gary Clark, and one track is a collaborative song with multiple songwriters (track #6).
As a start, the album kicks off as something that could have been released by Skunk Anansie, i.e. the style is clearly bolder hard rock and alt. rock, and this sensation is repeated in more instances than what we heard on her first solo, but it's not entirely just that. In fact, the album sounds more like an album that could have followed Stoosh - it contains up front energetic outbursts and subtle ballads and with something in between. The link to the first two albums is quite obviously underlined in the front cover.
Compared to her solid solo debut this one steps it up a tiny inch, and makes it really good album. Imo. the end track "Falling for You" is no less than her best performance, and that the album is a must have.
Despite really fine songs, the album simply failed to chart any higher than number #176 in the UK - whether the label V2 simply didn't promote it enough remains untold - it did fare much better on the European continent. With this, it remains the final solo effort by Skin, who spent some time after the album experimenting with electronic music before re-grouping with her former band mates in Skunk Anansie around 2010.
Recommended.
