Two

I was surprisingly pleased with Lenka's 2nd album, 2. I absolutely adored her first album and was anxiously awaiting her next effort. While it has taken me about 5 listen-throughs to really get into it, I find that this album contains the same upbeat, soothing, pop-iness that I fell in love with in her first album. While the songs are a little more generic (the first album has a lot more variety and range), this is an honest effort and thoroughly enjoyable. If you like her sound, you should enjoy this album.

If you were a fan of Lenka's sweetly innocent pop tunes from her first album, then read no further. This album is just as sweet, just as catchy, and even a bit more diverse. "Two" starts the album off, reminding you why you loved lenka in the first place. "Roll With the Punches", the most popular song off the album thus far, is - in my opinion - too derivitive of "The Show" from her last album. Not to say that's bad, but I know that she has more to offer. We move on to a haunting little track called "Blinded by Love", which feels like she's weeping the chorus in a good way. Definitely give it a listen a few times to really feel it. Around this time, I was looking for a change. That's when "You Will Be Mine" came on. It's a catchy 80's track. You'll like it. Finally, we have "The End of the World". In this song, Lenka cranks up her sweet factor to eleven. If you've ever been in love - and I mean real, true love - you'll really relate to this song.

I use the word sweet often when describing Lenka, because that one word describes practically everything about her music - from her lyrics and vocals, to her tempo and melodies. It usually manages to avoid being corny, mostly because it sounds honest. Start with "The Show" from her last album or "Roll with the Punches" from this one and, if you like it, download the rest. It's all pretty good.

Maybe my expectations were just too high after Lenka's first album, but Two just doesn't live up to those expectations. I've listened to it a couple times now, and it doesn't really have any songs that instantly grabbed me like so many songs from her first album did. These songs seem to lack the distinctive hooks and unique style and instead have a far more safely mainstream sound to them.

Looking into it further, I found that most of the songs from her first album were co-written with a handful of other people, and none of those people had anything to do with the second album. It really shows. Most songs from the second album were written exclusively by Lenka, where as only three songs from the first album were written solely by her. So, sadly, it seems that a lot of the people who were partially responsible for my enjoyment of her first album are no longer working with her, and the new crew just doesn't work the same magic for me. It's the same thing I experienced with Emiliana Torrini's albums, the people behind "Love in the Time of Science" were no longer involved in her later albums, and the music became a lesser thing because of it. It may be a terrible thing to say, but sometimes song writers just aren't as talented without the help of the right people, and once they get more control over their music... it's just not as good.

This album is okay. It stlil has some of the charm and quirkiness of the first album, but it definitely feels as if the new one has been designed to cater to a specific audience and I don't feel as if I'm part of that audience. It may grow on me, but... the first album didn't have to.