Description
An album that never spawned hits on the magnitude of “Bring Me Some Water” or “I’m the Only One” from her debut, Melissa Etheridge’s sorely overlooked third effort is a gold mine of poetic contemplation, sensual declarations, and emotional pleas. Of her first five albums, Never Enough is the one that best shows her range. Stepping away from electric guitar-based rock and blues and toward such exploratory tunes as the piano-backed “The Letting Go,” the beat- and sample-driven “2001,” and the uncommonly poppy “Dance Without Sleeping,” Etheridge proves she’s not a one-riff musician. She seems to push through her stylistic fears a bit, yet stays comfortably within the boundaries that her raspy belt can reach. Never Enough offers a healthy dose of Etheridge’s trademark soul-twisting rock in the form of “Ain’t it Heavy” and the angry, possessive of “It’s for You.” But the addition of pattern-busting songs makes this album a particularly mature, rich, pleasurable listen. –Sally Weinbach
