Pennsylvania-born singer-songwriter Christina Perri had a breakthrough hit in 2010 with her debut single ‘Jar of Hearts’. The song was a hit across the globe and it launched Perri’s debut album ‘Lovestrong’, which went on to be certified Platinum in the US. In 2011 Perri scored her biggest hit yet with the release of ‘A Thousand Years’, a song that was pivotal in the box-office phenomenon ‘The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1’, which achieved Diamond status in the US. Since then Perri hasn’t been able to match her early success with second album ‘Head or Heart’, released in 2014, reaching Gold in the US but failing to spawn any big hits.
Following that album, Perri released ‘Songs for Carmella: Lullabies & Sing-a-longs’ in 2019 and ‘Songs For Rosie’ in 2021, the latter dedicated to Perri’s second daughter who was stillborn. Less than a year on from that release, Perri is releasing her third album proper ‘lighter shade of blue’, a contemplative and reflective collection of songs. The set launched with ‘evergone’, a piano ballad that pays tribute to Rosie and captures Perri’s grief as she comes to terms with losing her daughter. It’s an optimistic twist on a tragic situation and musically it sits in Perri’s sweet spot.
Opening track ‘surrender’ finds Perri dealing with the struggle of trying to keep things together. The gentle piano-led ballad is a good insight into what the record has in store for you. Wearing her heart very much on her sleeve, Perri takes the listener inside the grief and journey she’s been on since losing her daughter. That means the project is an emotive listen that is challenging at time, and it’s likely to resonate strongly with anyone who has been in a similar situation.
‘lighter shade of blue’ is clearly an album that Perri needed to write and release, but it does sadly suffer from a lack of variety. The tempo barely strays from the ballad territory that Perri has built a career on so far, which unfortunately means that at times one song flows straight into the other and you may barely notice. There are a couple of moments where Perri does something different such as on the jazz-light of ‘hurt’ and the more uptempo ‘time of our lives’.
Elsewhere on the record Ben Rector features on album highlight ‘back in time’ where he and Perri reflect back on how you can’t turn back the clock, ‘people like you’ features Perri layering her vocals on one of the album’s most stripped-down moments, and ‘i do it for you’ is an exploration of how you can push through for someone else, even when you don’t feel like you can get through a day yourself. The album comes to a close with ‘roses in the rain’, a song that features an almost-whisper vocal from Perri as she puts moving through life with grief into words.
‘lighter shade of blue’ is a solid enough album but for me, the lack of variety meant that it never really shifts past second gear. The songs here are beautiful, and the lyrics deeply personal, but this isn’t an album that’s going to grab you and demand you listen over-and-over. Perri is a gifted artist and I don’t want to take anything away from how she’s chosen to process her grief, but ‘lighter shade of blue’ is just a little too downtempo.
Track list: 1. surrender 2. hurt 3. evergone 4. back in time (feat. Ben Rector) 5. home 6. people Like You 7. fever 8. blue 9. i do it for you 10. mothers 11. fighter 12. tiny victories 13. time of our lives 14. roses in the rain Record label: Elektra Release date: 24th June 2022 Buy ‘lighter shade of blue’ now
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