Melanie — Photograph

Just another Melanie record, just another mid-pandemic purchase. 1976’s “Photograph” just hits differently than the other Melanie records. It starts with as close to a rocker as she’s gonna get, the second side opens with a jazzy track, there’s a sort of a showtune in there somewhere (not usually a good thing, to my ear) – these are excellent songs, performed perfectly. At this point she had produced something like 14 albums in eight years, a crazy pace even for those days.

More dynamic, more sweeping than her other records, more varied in style if not in tone, this is a beautiful album – maybe the best of the Melanie albums that I own.