Meghan Trainor, the artist responsible for the overplayed “All About That Bass,” released her first album, Title, January 9 after hitting the top of the music charts with two singles. Both tracks, “All About That Bass” and “Lips Are Movin’,” are featured on the album, assuring fans they can find what they know while experiencing Trainor’s other songs.
The album is the ultimate make or break moment for Trainor’s music career, which surprisingly made it past ‘one-hit wonder’ status. For a strong majority of the album, the beats and messages seem to simply be a continuation of the chipper-yet-sassy singles responsible for the nearly 1.9 million subscribers on YouTube.
Trainor’s style and sound is made clear throughout the 15-song album, featuring a distinct mix of 50’s sock hop, pop and slight hip hop/R&B. Ultimately, the beats and instruments synthesize the sounds of the 50’s and the past decade or so. Some songs are obviously modeled after the songstresses of early soul and sock hop, while other songs display a sassier hip hop vocal–at some points there are a little bit of both.
Despite the variety and uniqueness of sound in general, the album proves to be rather static in theme (love, love and more love) and beat (five too many clap tracks). There is enough difference between the raw vocal interlude and hip hop-influenced radio magnet “Bang Dem Sticks,” but by the time listeners reach “Mr. Almost” the album has essentially reached its full potential. The last two songs, “My Selfish Heart” and “Credit,” either sound quite like the already-established Ariana Grande or return to the doo wop that covered most of the first 6 songs.
The most appeal is found in the lyrics, which demonstrate a surprisingly common mentality of being a sexually liberated modern woman who wants to be courted mid-century style, as noted by “Dear Future Husband” and “Walkashame.” If these messages reach the target audience, popularity and sales are inevitable.
Meghan Trainor has the potential to dominate airwaves with the next few songs off of Title, but it seems the fixed nature of her production and love life themes might just be the demise of an otherwise promising future in the industry. Who knows: We could be seeing more of Trainor’s hit-producing “bass” in the future.
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