With A Hand to Hold, sixteen year-old Katy Eggleton ably adds a compelling female voice and feminine perspective to the male-dominated halls of emo and pop-rock. Two versions of the song "Annual" bookend this eleven-track collection, whose poetic lyr [+]With A Hand to Hold, sixteen year-old Katy Eggleton ably adds a compelling female voice and feminine perspective to the male-dominated halls of emo and pop-rock. Two versions of the song "Annual" bookend this eleven-track collection, whose poetic lyrics and scorching guitar lines unfold like a trusted friend's message in the pages of a high school yearbook. In a record about self-acceptance and the compassion and generosity that spring from it, the verses conclude with this fondly self-deprecating admission: "I know I've written a novel here, but it's just what I do." It is this mix of wit and wisdom, sincerity and charm that posit Katy as an unassuming and capable scribe for her generation. Imagine that the prettiest girl in school just signed your annual--and wrote for 43 minutes (!). For years to come you'll read what she had to say.
The "paperback edition" of "Annual" kicks off this audio yearbook with a radio-friendly introduction to the inviting voice of Katy Eggleton. Playful memories and heartfelt observations bob along to a pulsing alt-rock beat, with detuned electric guitars snarling at the edge of the speakers. At the center of the mix stands Katy's coolly deliberate vocals, her deadpan Liz Phair delivery, sure to stop the boys in their tracks and make the girls sing along. Compressed drum and bass, over-distorted Les Pauls, and dead catchy hooks confidently allow Katy to join the cool kids like Fall Out Boy or the All American Rejects at the lunch table. And she's only sixteen!
"Don't get him started 'cause he'll go on forever--like a bicycle wheel spinning after a crash," track two begins. Producer/guitarist/co-writer Rob Seals matches the colorful characters of "Broken Glass" to an equally colorful palette of sounds: stinging electric and shimmering acoustic guitars, a musty Wurlitzer, percolating keys, all atop a top-shelf rhythm section featuring drummer Craig MacIntyre (Josh Groban) and Sean Hurley (Vertical Horizon) on bass. Katy sees the quirks in people not as defects but as wonderful imperfections that make us all unique. When she holds them like broken glass to the light she observes, "There's beauty in the flaws--with colors shining through." She then asks, "When you see flaws, are they beautiful to you?" By the end o
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