Michelle Branch Returns to Studio This Month, Recording a New 'Pop Record'

You can't help but feel a little bad when a talented artist is forced to sacrifice a bit of creative control in order to appease a major record label. Now, I'm not saying record label politics were FOR CERTAIN what happened with Michelle Branch's long delayed new album but she's been dropping hints for some time now that the delay was beyond her control. I got a little excited when Branch released an EP, Everything Comes and Goes this past summer but nothing really came of it. "Sooner or Later," the EP's only official single, peaked at #93 on the Billboard Hot 100. Pity.

While the vibe of Branch's Everything Comes and Goes EP was decidedly more country/pop (a la The Wreckers) it appears that Branch and/or her label (Warner Brothers) has switched gears entirely. In a recent interview over on UStream, Branch chatted about the new "pop" direction of her forthcoming LP. Talk about a complete 360! Here's what Branch had to say:

"I hate putting labels on it because a good song is a good song. This record is more in the vein of my first record, which I would say was a pop record." - {SOURCE}

Interesting indeed. According to Branch, she's been collaborating with Julian Emrey and Jim Irvine who, between the two of them, have worked with a diverse array of artists including McFly, David Cook, Boyzone, David Guetta and Simple Plan. Branch goes on to mention the names of at least two new songs ("Spark" and "The Story of Us") that she wrote with Emrey and Irvine but says that she has a bunch to choose from for the final album.

"I have 11 or 12 songs ready to go right now and I'm going to go in studio in January and start recording them. I'm really confident I will have this record out by next summer." - {SOURCE}

While I also hate it when an artist has to compromise and do a genre that he/she isn't really into, I'm kind of excited that Branch is (temporarily?) ditching country and revisiting the sounds of The Spirit Room, the album that first garnered her so much buzz. Anyway, who knows if she actually had to compromise. In the UStream chat she does describe the process with the new record as "fun" and "creative," which sounds to me that she's not being forced against her will to record a pop record - so who knows. While I'm not holding my breath that we're going to hear any more Timbaland collaborations, I think Branch's return to her pop/rock roots is exciting news by itself. Hotel Paper, Branch's last solo effort peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart back in 2003. Stand Still, Look Pretty, her last record with The Wreckers peaked at #14 on the Billboard 200 and #4 on the Billboard Country chart.

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