Usually I am skeptical when a girl group (or duo for that matter) comes in and wows the crowd the first time.  The Donnas did it in 2002 and then after getting completely undercut on release time, they decided to go back to toiling in the indie and underground.  But for the Veronicas, who are the dynamic duo of Jess and Lisa Origilasso, even they peeled away my skepticism.  Not only did I listen to a sparkling debut from the Australian twins, it impressed me that I can say they have staying power.

“The Secret Life Of” has 11 originals from the duo and a remarkable cover of Tracy Bonham’s smash hit, ‘Mother Mother.’  The album has some incredible layering, starting off at a frenetic pace on “4ever,”  “Everything I’m Not,” a song about a girl who struggles to compete with an obviously perfect and pretty face for a guy, “When It All Falls Apart,” and “Revolution.” “Secret” is at the point where the album starts slowing down and gets more poignant but pointed, a formula that has worked for Kelly Clarkson in “Breakaway.” And then on ‘Speechless,’ the girls do a complete 180 from the “You go girl!” spirit, go soft on the listener and for the next 3 minutes and 56 seconds basically pen and sing the ultimate letter of love, a letter a girl would write but would never show it to anyone and keep it in a shoebox (for you One Tree Hill fans, you know exactly what I’m referencing it to).

After ‘Speechless,’ the album picks up the pace just a little bit, but stays in poignancy  and adds something I like to call “heart-tugging” power.  That’s when the song just pierces your soul into your heart and the girls do it with layering the guitar/drum base with haunting string-playing.  The album then ends with the Veronicas doing an incredible cover of Tracy Bonham’s ‘Mother Mother’ down to the low growl that Tracy was famous for.  Their cover certainly gives Maroon 5’s cover of ‘Highway to Hell’ by AC/DC a run for the money as best cover in the past five years.
The songwriting in “Secret” seemingly was a bit slick but that’s expected for any album debut.  Jess does have songwriting credits in 9 of the 12 songs on the album and when she was given principal songwriting duties, it showed.  She already has a brilliant streak in her writing, amazing for someone so young.  I would love to see what she can do when given at least principal songwriting duties rather than leaving some to pop-writing Svengalis like Lukasz Gottwald or Chantal Kreviazuk.  The vocals from the twins were sparkling as well except for a few occasions when they kind of sounded like Britney Spears times two.  They may need to refine their higher octave range a bit given the type of music they play.  Don’t get me wrong though, the songwriting overall was brilliant.

Overall, “Secret Life Of” was sparkling from top to bottom but not without some rough edges and the overall slickness.  But that has come to be expected for just about any album debut.  As said before, I’m usually skeptical when a girl group comes out because they wow their crowd the first time, disappoint the second time, and then break-up.  But that’s because of a lack of talent or for the Donnas, too much like their male-led and driven contemporaries.  But the Veronicas have peeled my own skepticism with excellent vocals, brilliant songwriting, and a kind of spirit I would like to see more females in the music business possess.


Final word:  Out of a scale of 1 to 5, I give “The Secret Life Of” a 4.2 out of 5.  While it is a sparkling debut and a sign that the Veronicas aren’t some flash in the pan, there were a few rough spots, and was a bit slick at times.  The two strongest songs were “Secret” and “Speechless,” both done by Jess Origilasso, despite having helped penned 9 out of the 12 songs.  But those two songs were her on principal songwriting capacity and it showed off a lyrical brilliance that few young female songwriters possess.  This album is a definite buy for anyone, guy or girl.

Links:
Listen to their album
Official site
Myspace