Where has this diva been hiding? The Canadian pop singer Jane Child hasn't been seen here around these parts for a long while, but tonight, she's back to rock everybody's world! Last time I'd heard anything by Jane Child, it was about a week ago to enjoy one of her breakout hits again—"Don't Wanna Fall In Love", which can be found on her hugely successful debut album; before that, it was about a year or so to listen to that whole album again. Can't believe how I managed to never get around to checking out her not-much-talked-about 1993 release, "Here Not There". Think the title sums it up perfectly for me in my case; my attention must've been on Jane's first album so much (that represents the 'here') and not even thinking about the one after it (and that represents the 'there'). Good thing that this was requested by my friend Kim a few days ago; it reminded me that I still had it. And great timing, too; I've gotten back into the rockin' mood over the past week. That mood always seems to pop up out of nowhere. One minute, I can be listening to some lovely instrumental jazz music or some relaxing ambient New Age Celtic music (as I was, actually), then suddenly, my ears feel the need for something loud and raucous and wild. Not that I knew that this album would be Jane's first adventure into the realm of alternative rock, but remembering how powerful her voice was and thinking about that suspenseful "Hey Mr. Jones" song from her first album, I was somehow expecting it to be as such. Yeah, it's alternative all right—the songs 'alternate' back and forth between an edgy hardcore rock sound and a more radio-friendly contemporary pop sound. Either way the boat rocks, it's Jane Child all the way, and she rocks the boat bigger than she ever had before! 'She can rock your world', as she declares on the opening track, "Mona Lisa Smiles", but I think she may've been talking more about herself than the lady featured on that famous Leonardo da Vinci painting. She's not as loud and rowdy on "All I Do"; the wildness breaks out in the latter seconds of the song. A sweeter version of Jane Child is featured here instead, vocally coming close to resembling lead signer Nina Persson of THE CARDIGANS, one of the ladies from THE BANGLES. But I love this song very much. Did I hear some Halloween music??!! The chilling chimes and the haunting ambiance sure gives "Sshhh" a creepy feeling, but when you add the lyrics and Jane's amazing voice to the dark atmosphere, it becomes one of the strongest performances on this album. Another terrific performance to another song that's just as intense and almost as creepy as "Sshhh"—"I Do Not Feel As You Do". Very unusual rhythm and time signature to this song, but it sounds so cool. I pose this question to the music composers out there: is the time signature 5/4, 5/6 or 5/8? I know for sure there's a '5' in there somewhere, because I'm hearing an extra fifth beat on one of the measures (and ow I'm suddenly recalling those days I read sheet music while playing in my middle school band). "Calling" is a fun song because it makes use of those familiar telephone sound effects. On most 'telephone'themed' songs, you only get the phone conversation at the very beginning—usually as an interlude leading into the main song—but here, the sound effects are heard continuously, which I thought was different. And the wildest song of all—"Sarasvati". Not even sure what 'Sarasvati' means (is it Italian for something?), but it's 8+ frantic minutes of super high-energy rock and ethnic tribal dance—a combination that you'll only find here, not there:
1. Mona Lisa Smiles
2. Do Whatcha Do
3. Monument
4. All I Do
5. Sshhh
6. Perfect Love
7. I Do Not Feel As You Do
8. Heavy Smile
9. Calling
10. Step Out Of Time
11. Sarasvati
12. Here Not There
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