One to Spin: Melissa Etheridge's Skin.

Please forgive me
If I don't know what to do
It's an old fire
This familiar desire
But my skin is painfully new

I've followed Melissa Etheridge for a long time. While more recent outings have left me less impressed, her music continues to speak to me in a way that is not easily defined. In 2001, fresh from a breakup, she released Skin. Personally, I was in transition as well, a twenty-two year old living in a very harsh reality.

This album, its words, its tone, its very being touches me. It brings some very real emotions to the surface, identifies some things I can't speak. Opening with Lover Please, the story is put into motion. One of heartache, hope, fear, and empowerment. The peeling away of one's self and replacing it with something new.

By the closing lines of Heal Me, the listener is part of the journey. Down to one, moving forward, healing, ready to embrace the world again, the skin, painfully new. A highly recommended listen, and an album that transforms this sometimes lonely, sometimes battered soul into a more confident, ready to face the world individual.