Marion Raven is currently best known for recording ‘It’s All Coming Back To Me Now’ with Meat Loaf. This EP is unlikely to change that, as Raven follows firmly in the footsteps of the Avril Lavigne / Lauren Harris female-fronted pop-with-rock-leanings crowd and, although ‘Heads Will Roll’ is a fun listen, it’s all been done before, and done much better.
Opening track ‘Spit You Out’ may have a chorus that could have been written by a five year old, and Raven’s voice may have been edited and layered to within an inch of its life, but it’s crammed with so many straightforward riffs and soaring vocals that this is great fun to listen to, even if it won’t have you hitting the repeat button.
Raven does make one fatal mistake with this song, and that’s dismantling that big, rock and roll backing track on the verses. This leaves you with no distraction from those dire lyrics, and the fact that there’s something vaguely annoying about some of Raven’s vocals. This is particularly true with the first verse, when she tries to sound brooding and raspy, and just ends up sounding bunged-up, which gets this enjoyable song off to a bad start.
‘Heads Will Roll’ is notable in that it features backing vocals from Nikki Sixx. Unfortunately, it’s also notable in that it begins in less than appealing fashion, with Raven delivering some cringe-worthy spoken-word vocals over a funky, synth-heavy beat. She seems determined to expose her lyrics to scrutiny whenever possible, when what she should be doing is packing in as many big, dumb riffs as possible, so the listener doesn’t dwell on how crap the lyrics are.
‘All I Wanna Do Is You’ takes the awful lyrics of ‘Heads Will Roll’ and ‘Spit You Out’ and makes them ten times worse. Thankfully, Raven has a talent for penning sassy, infectious choruses and ‘All I Wanna Do Is You’ is no exception, delivering spring-heeled drums and polished riffs in abundance whenever the chorus kicks in.
However, the decorative chords of the verses once again expose lyrics that reek of fabricated, must-clock-up-maximum-record-sales sexuality. This is possible to overlook when Raven is belting out those high notes against slick, catchy pop grooves, but it’s impossible to ignore on those stripped-down verses, meaning that this song is ultimately
too much of a guilty pleasure to really enjoy.
And then, just when you think you’ve got Marion Raven pegged, there’s ‘13 Days’ which is all lushly Gothic piano refrains, subtly chilling strings and cryptic, imagery-focused lyrics.
The glacial cool backdrop means that Raven isn’t constantly stretching for those big notes, and her vocals sound more grown-up and stronger as a result.
It may be blatantly making a play for the Evanescence fan base, but ‘13 Days’ has a sense of mystique that, after an EP full of obvious, playing-it-safe radio-rock, makes it sound like the cleverest and subtlest thing ever committed to record. It isn’t, of course, but it’s still miles ahead of everything else on this EP.
And then it’s back to business as usual, with ‘Good 4 Sex’ (which is actually spelt like that). After you’ve battled through the cliché riddled verse (and gotten over the text-speak title) you’re treated to a redeeming chorus where every awful lyric is pitched just right to ensure you won’t be able to get them out of your head.
Last track ‘Let Me Introduce Myself’ is an acoustic ballad that makes you appreciate just how effortlessly powerful Raven’s voice is, a fact which isn’t immediately obvious when she’s battling to make herself heard during those soaring choruses.
However, beyond this there’s very little
right with ‘Let Me Introduce Myself.’ It begins with the self-indulgent introduction “this is a song about my ex-boyfriend’s new girl,” and then it’s all downhill from there, as Raven employs every cliché in the songs-about-failed-relationships book. The stripped-down musical style may show off Raven’s voice, but it means there’s no escape from the lyrics, which are easily the worst on the EP.
‘Heads Will Roll’ is pretty much one big cliché from start to finish, but the choruses are crammed with huge, poppy vocals and straightforward rock riffs, so it doesn’t actually matter that the lyrics are rubbish (which is a good job, because they really are.) Musically, Marion Raven is heavier than Avril Lavigne, but the vocals are poppier, and so it’s likely to go down well with anyone who has ever enjoyed any of Lavigne’s songs, even if they never admitted to it.
‘Heads Will Roll’ would ultimately be pretty unremarkable if it wasn’t for ‘13 Days.’ This complete curveball of a song takes the goth atmospherics of Evanescence and gives them a pop twist, creating something far more interesting and enduring than the forced titillation of the rest of this EP. Hopefully, ‘13 Days’ isn’t a complete one off, and Marion Raven will dabble with goth-infused pop again - or, at the very least, learn how to write a decent verse.
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Marion Raven - Heads Will Roll (EP)
