Charlotte Sometimes

Charlotte Sometimes, known to most by her song "How I Could Just Kill a Man" from her album Waves and the Both of Us, is rereleasing her Sideways EP. The reason why Charlotte's releasing the EP is pretty simple, a lot of people didn't know that she released one in the first place.

"I’m rereleasing it because it came out last year in May and I did it all by myself. I funded the whole thing. I was manager-less. I didn’t do any promotion on it, I just put it online on my website. If you signed up for my mailing list you’d get a link for the EP. Two months ago I put it on iTunes after I did that promotion. And now the sales keep going up on the EP and people are just starting to realize that Charlotte Sometimes released something. And I thought ‘you know what’ I just recorded another five songs and this would be a great launching pad to promote what’s going to happen. All of these Charlotte Sometimes fans that don’t even know that I released something will now actually know. So I’m getting people reintroduced to what I’m all about.”

The five songs on the Sideways EP are drastically different than the songs she released on her Geffen debut album three years ago. The songs are mostly acoustic songs but lyrically and musically this music is considerably darker. That has to do with where Charlotte was at in her life when she was working on this EP.

"I was a hot mess. I was writing this EP and I had just left my manager that I was working with since I was 16 years old. I had just been dropped from my label. I left my management by choice, but I didn’t leave Geffen by choice. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I wasn’t happy in the industry and this EP kind of captured all of the darkness that happened on tour and working with people that maybe I shouldn’t have worked with. I felt like I had gotten taken advantage of. I started touring and working when I was 16 with music and by the time that all this was happening and I was writing this EP I was in a really dark phase. It was a dark in-between phase between being a teenager and an adult. These songs felt therapeutic for me going through all of these awful emotions. They had to happen for me to move on from the situation. The new songs are a departure from this EP but I felt I had to share my story about everything.”

The songs helping Charlotte don't just come from her process, you get the feeling that it comes from her belief in music.

"This EP was falling back in love with who I am and with my music. I gave the power to the songs. I don’t want to sound pretentious but it’s better to give the power to the songs not yourself. Who am I? How dare I put so much pressure on myself? I’m just one person. The songs are bigger than me. When somebody writes a song, the song is bigger than they are. It’s their own little world. That’s where I want to be because it’s a nice place to hide out. Once I started doing that I enjoyed myself a lot more and it made me a lot happier.”

You can find the Sideways EP up on Amazon and iTunes now. Expect new material to pop up from Charlotte on her website www.charlottesometimesmusic.com in July.
Links:
More on Charlotte Sometimes on Alternative Addiction
- Alternative Addiction

http://www.papermag.com/2009/11/about_last_night_the_vh1_save.php - Paper Magazine

Courtesy of myspace.com
Indie-pop artist to rock Noontime
By Hannah Rishel
Collegian Staff Writer
Charlotte Sometimes will deliver a dose of indie-inspired pop to the HUB-Robeson Center’s first floor lounge Friday at noon.

The singer will perform at the Student Programming Association’s Noontime Concert Series.

Sometimes — a stage name for Jessica Poland that pays homage to the children’s novel by Penelope Farmer — began playing guitar at age 14, according to her official website.

She gained notoriety in 2008 when her song “How I Could Just Kill a Man” garnered radio play and she was named one of Vh1’s “You Oughta Know” artists. Sometimes has also toured with Gavin DeGraw, Butch Walker and The Hush Sound.

Series chairwoman Carolyn Lederach said SPA found Sometimes through an electronic press kit.

“We usually have trouble finding female artists to play,” Lederach (senior-advertising) said.

Lederach said the singer has performed at the Vans Warped Tour, which leads her to believe Sometimes will put on a good live performance.

Lederach classifies Sometimes’ music as pop and said she thinks the artist will put on an acoustic performance.

SPA has hosted acoustic singers in the past, and they’ve gone well, Lederach said.

“We’re hoping for the same crowd,” she said. “We’re also hoping the name will bring people out here. [‘How I Could Just Kill a Man’] is pretty famous.”

Sometimes is no stranger to Happy Valley. She performed in December 2008 at SoZo Institute of the Arts, 256 E. Beaver Ave.

At the request of her roommate, Juliann Igo saw Sometimes the first time she visited State College.

“I had never heard of her before but my roommate really liked her, so she took me to see her,” Igo (junior-advertising) said.

She said she enjoyed Sometimes’ performance because of the singer’s “really unique voice” and the intimate atmosphere of the venue.

“She had a really fun personality, too,” Igo said. “Her song lyrics are really catchy and some of them are kind of dark.”

Igo, who downloaded some of Sometimes’ music after seeing her in concert, said she plans on attending Friday’s concert if it fits into her schedule.

Katie Pettine, an indie-pop fan, also plans on attending the concert — if she can get out of her Friday class on time.

“I like the indie-pop type of music because the indie artists create new music that is different and fun, and it’s unlike anything that’s really mainstream,” Pettine (freshman-English) said. - Penn State Collegian

Published: July 2008

HQ: New York, NY
NOW PLAYING: Waves And The Both of Us (GEFFEN; geffen.com)
WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW HER: Despite her sweet smile, sparkling voice and fondness for '50s housewife garb, Charlotte Sometimes might just kill a man.
YOU LIKE? YOU'LL LIKE: Lily Allen, Kate Nash, Nelly Furtado
STORY: Kelly Delaney

Once upon a time (during a recent tour), there was a girl who stood at the pharmacy counter inside an Arkansas Wal-Mart and begged the pharmacist to fill her prescription before 2 p.m. so she could return to her convoy in time. Sadly, the pharmacist twanged that he couldn't help the girl. "Aw, fuck my life," sighed Charlotte Sometimes, betraying both her fairytale name (which she borrowed from the title of one of her favorite childhood books) and her deceivingly angelic appearance.

It was a small, inconsequential moment in the life of the 20-year-old singer, but it was indicative of how easy it can be to misjudge Miss Sometimes. Her namesake (the one in the book by Penelope Farmer) found herself trapped in someone else's identity and struggled to return to her true self. Our Charlotte Sometimes discovered her true self in songwriting as a New Jersey teenager, puzzling her way through high school and looking for an emotional escape. Once, she thought that ballet would be the outlet.

"When I started playing music, it was a totally different experience [from ballet]," she says. "I was the one who got to decide what I was singing and writing, but when I danced, someone else was telling me the routine." It was only a few months after Sometimes first picked up a guitar at age 14 that she began performing for audiences. Her classmates weren't quite sure what to make of the suddenly successful Sometimes, who released several homemade EPs before graduating--it was obvious that her life wasn't moving at the same pace. "I didn't need to feel connected to high school to feel like I mattered," she says. "I already felt like I mattered."

With the ink on her diploma barely dry, she moved to New York City and enrolled at the prestigious New School University in Greenwich Village, where she adopted her moniker and began cultivating a new fan base with her biting sassiness juxtaposed over cherubic melodies--showcased throughout her debut full-length, Waves And The Both Of Us.

The title track begins innocently with its hushed piano and guitar intro, but it quickly forays far from sweetness when Charlotte tells the listener, "I take off your shirt, you pull up my skirt." In "How I Could Just Kill A Man," Sometimes swipes the refrain from a Cypress Hill classic and redefines the word "lethal." "[I was going through a difficult breakup when I wrote it] and he actually did say to me, 'How could you kill me like this?' I said, 'Because I could just kill a man, that's how," In fact, maybe someone should write a fairytale based around this sentiment: "Instead of being gangsta by killing someone," poses Sometimes. "You can be gangsta with someone's heart." - Alternative Press (by Kelly Delaney)

Published: June 2008

Hustle: Channeling dual personalities through her Warped Tour-ready debut, Waves & The Both of Us.

Beware: "I'm definitely a little evil, a little bit vindictive,' says the 20-year-old rocker, who took the name Charlotte Sometimes from Penelope Farmer's children's book. "I love to cry and all that bullshit, but it's more fun to dance to your problems."

April Fools: "I text-messaged my father saying that I had collapsed from exhaustion and had to cancel my tour. He told my mom, and they freaked! It was pretty mean."

On the road: Having grown up with two older brothers, Charlotte quickly adapted to touring with her bandmates, though traveling with six boys in one van can sometimes be too much. "They smell and fart! And I never noticed how much guys talk about pooping. I don't get it!" - GIANT

Published: May 2008

Charlotte Sometimes, a feisty 20-year-old who is preparing to release her debut album on Geffen, sounds surprised that fans at her shows already know all the words to her songs. Somehow, recent tours with Butch Walker and New Atlantic have turned into veritable sing-a-longs, even though the musician doesn't yet have a record on the shelves. Charlotte, whose impassioned, eclectic rock songs call to mind a glossier Regina Spektor or a poppier, less morose Fiona Apple, started working on her debut in August of 2006, began recording in February of 2007 and will finally release it this year.

"It is a solo project, but I definitely don't see it like that, and I think that's why my live band is such a part of everything I do," explains Charlotte, who has already finished penning her next album. "They're more than just faces in the background. They bring a whole different element on stage. They are Charlotte Sometimes, but at the same time it is a solo project when I'm working in the studio. I'm hoping maybe next record it can be more of a collaborative effort."

The album also represents the varied influences Charlotte brings to the table in her music. Starting from an acoustic solo project, under a name she refuses to reveal, to an indie rock band that "only played basements in NJ," Charlotte Sometimes mixes styles and tones to create something immediately likeable and accessible.

"It's like everything and like nothing," she says of the album. "what's great about the record is that you can totally bash the guy you're dating or you can cry about your day to a song that's like "keep truckin' on," but at the same time there's hip-hop beats in the background so you can dance to it. So you can shake your booty while cursing off the guy who won't call you back."

And as for the name Charlotte Sometimes? It's drawn from both The Cure song of the same name, which in turn took its moniker from the book, and from the notion that the artist is Charlotte, sometimes.

"The songs I write come from me, but it's a total different side of me," she explains. "I'm not like that every day. For the most part I like to write poetry and hang out in my apartment and cry, but on stage I'm a man-eating machine. It's a way of being two different people but still remaining myself." - YRB (by Emily Zemler)

Published: May 6, 2008

The attraction of a twisted chick working out her personal dramas in songs is as strong on Charlotte Sometimes' debut as it is in the best of Tori Amos or Fiona Apple. Miss sometimes understands that pop music has to be accessible, but also needs depth to be meaningful and avoid vapidity. This smart, doe-eyed 20-year-old from the Jersey-side totally succeeds on "Waves." And she doesn't allow herself to get caught in one style: There's '60s girl pop, dance and folk. The key tracks are "How I Could Just Kill a Man," with its dark lyrics and bright melody, and the lusty title song "The Waves and the Both of Us." Love it. - New York Post (by Dan Aquilante)

Published: April 30, 2008

Geffen Records' latest discovery, singer Charlotte Sometimes crisscrosses genres for a poppy blend all her own. Having experimented with recordings on her own in high school, the trials and tribulations of family life, social change and failed relationships encouraged her to persevere in her art. Charlotte is now on the road with a backing quartet, hoping to connect with audiences worldwide in anticipation of her Waves And The Both Of Us album. With its lilting melodies and inviting grooves, Charlotte is poised to make her mark. - Aquarian

Published: May 7th, 2008

It started with a snotty kid in junior high and ended in a major-label record deal. When Charlotte Sometimes was bullied in middle school, she took out her anger by writing a poem about the brat who was mean to her, which turned into a song. “My dad told me that no one really wants to hear me just sing my poems. He said, ‘You should probably get a collaborator,’” says Charlotte, whose stage moniker comes from a children’s book of the same name. “I was like, ‘I’m not gonna get a collaborator, I’m gonna do it on my own. I’m gonna play guitar and write songs,’ and he’s like, ‘OK.’” And so she did.
The song she wrote about the jerk in middle school certainly wasn’t the last Charlotte penned about a guy — her May 6, 2008, Geffen Records debut, Waves and the Both of Us, has plenty of them. But the feisty pop album also has a number of contradictions, much like the 20-year-old herself. Onstage, Charlotte usually wears an apron, which she says is a nod to Samantha from Bewitched. The infamous TV character had to decide what kind of woman she wanted to be: homemaker or breadwinner, powerful or passive. “I always thought how interesting of a concept it is to be the woman with all these great things about you, yet you still want to downplay the things that make you exceptional, for a guy,” Charlotte says.
Applying this to her own songs, Charlotte says she juggles between being strong and opinionated and wanting the guy to come back to her. In “AEIOU,” she sings about a creepy guy who hit on her and chased her down the street, and then in “Toy Soldier” she wants a guy to take her back. “I think every girl feels that way, even if they don’t admit to it,” she says. “We’re all strong women, but we’re all little girls inside. It’s hard to decide what role you want to play. Who are you as a woman? Do you want to please the man? Do you want to please yourself? Can you do both? Can you be the girl who cries, but be the girl who punches the guy in the face? I don’t know.”
When I meet with Charlotte before a show in late February 2008, there are many places she would rather be than Lansing, Michigan. I can’t say I blame her — the weather sucks, and Mac’s Bar (a smoke-filled hole in the wall down the road from a Big Ten college town) isn’t the most glamorous of music venues. It doesn’t help that it’s the first date of her tour with local punk rockers Every Avenue, or that her last experience at Mac’s was just a couple of notches below awful. When she graced the stage at the bar last fall, it was the beginning of another tour, the venue was empty and smoky, and Charlotte lost her voice. The sickness she says she feels in her stomach is totally justified.
Queasiness and bad memories aside, the New Yorker by way of New Jersey is as bubbly as ever — maybe because she’s so excited to talk to a girl after being cooped up on a bus with a bunch of guys. “It’s hard the first week of any tour because I’m the only girl,” she says. “I’ve gotta get used to eating strangely and sleeping in a weird way … I get kinda cranky.”
Onstage, Charlotte is animated. During her short set, she danced on band members and seduced the cameras of fans in front of the stage. She says her performance style stems from her dance and theater background, but she’s also dramatic because the guy who inspired a few of the tracks is long gone. “I play it up onstage a little bit. It’s almost like a comedy, even though when I wrote it, it was so hurtful,” she says.
Charlotte says she tries to find the right balance in her music between clever, catchy, and intelligent, and tries to put this in a language that most people will understand. “I want to be able to help someone [with] their day the way that my music has helped me get through the day,” she says. “You want to please yourself, but at the same time you want to please other people, without giving up who you are. And that’s what you want to do in a relationship. So that’s how I take on music, like a relationship.” - Venus (by Laura Leebove)

Published: March 25, 2008

With the rare ability to balance a slightly brazen, beat-driven pop attitude and a singer-songwriter outlook, Charlotte Sometimes has a strange, guilt-free aura. It might not be as healthy as say, broccoli, to risk a food analogy, but memorable melodies and clever, taut songwriting go down rather easily on this short, three-song EP.

Much of it is simply due to her natural vocal talent, which seems to have escaped any harm from the ProTooling that is evident but not abused here. It's a voice that draws comparison to Fiona Apple, with the ability to reach a high lilt. The result is an airy, open feel to the music that essentially begs Top 40 attention, amongst the growing crop of young female singers of late.

To most, the ear-grabbing moment on the EP is a nod toward Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill A Man," which features the refrain prominently sang on a track of the same name. It's not a cover, more of a good-intentioned reference, but it stands out. The relationship empowerment motifs continue with "Sweet Valium High," with a deceptively sweet chorus of sobriety pleas.

Still, it's difficult to place her intentions beyond radio success from these short three tracks. Those looking for a full statement from Charlotte, rather than just a few songs, would just as well hold out for the full-length out in a few months.

In A Sauce: Sweet and Sour
Grade: B - Aquarian (by Patrick Slevin)

Published: March 16, 2008

CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES has chipped red fingernails, lipstick on her teeth and an attitude that makes her excellent pop star material.

“Oh yeah — I’m rude and crude and outspoken, and I’m comfortable saying what I need,” she said. “It fits.”

But the lanky 20-year-old, who will release her debut album, “Waves and the Both of Us,” on Geffen Records May 6 and play the Bamboozle Festival in East Rutherford the day before, might have made a name for herself anyway. She might even have done it without the stage name, which she came up with less than a year ago.

“Charlotte Sometimes is a girl in a book I read when I was little,” the singer explained at the Princess Diner here, where she used to hang out as a student at Wall High School. (“Charlotte Sometimes,” by Penelope Farmer, was published in 1969.)

“She gets trapped in another time, and she wants to reclaim her life,” said Ms. Sometimes, whose real name is Jessica Charlotte Poland.

The stage name “protects me,” she said. “I can go do a show as Charlotte Sometimes, and then go home and be someone else — the girl who wants to read and be with her family.”

She has lived in Wall Township all her life, having been adopted by her parents, Hartson and Tracy Poland, as a baby; she was introduced at age 13, with their consent, to her birth mother, who lives nearby and with whom she is now friendly.

There have been some detours on the road that Ms. Sometimes, who leads a five-man band, has traveled to opening for artists like Pat Monahan. She studied dance at the Dancer’s Workshop in Belmar until she gave it up at age 16 and took up the guitar. “I danced constantly for 13 years — jazz, tap, ballet,” she said.

“But for me to be a dancer — I had to look at myself in leotards, and subject myself to ‘suck this in, push that out.’ ” Words — first in the form of poetry, then song lyrics — felt like a more suitable outlet for self-expression. And her songs — Roy Orbison is a major influence on her pop-rock style — earned her practically instant attention.

After signing with Crush Management in Manhattan in 2004, she became the subject of an ElleGirl magazine profile about a high school girl on a mission to land a record-label deal. While Ms. Sometimes was being trailed by a writer and photographer, though, she developed condylar resorption, a jaw disease. The magazine article, which captured her ordeal, was published, but her record-deal ambitions were dashed by the need for facial-reconstruction surgery.

And even now that Ms. Sometimes is on her way to a high-profile career — an appearance on “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” is in the works — life isn’t always smooth.

“You see that Ford Focus with the mirror duct-taped to the side?” she asked, pointing into the Princess Diner’s parking lot while reapplying her lipstick. “That’s mine. I tend to get into a lot of wrecks.” - New York Times (by Tammy La Gorce)

Published: January 8, 2008

The New York-based, guitar-playing, nu-jazz chanteuse picked her moniker, which doubles as her band's name, from the Cure song - and it totally works, since Charlotte is her middle name, which she sometimes goes by. (She swears she'll never reveal her first and last names.) The band's February debut album, "Waves in the Both of Us," is full of genre-crossing songs that run the gamut from uplifting to traumatic, reflecting the many sides of the singer who mined her love life and neuroses for song subjects. - NY Post (by M.S.)

New Jersey native Charlotte Sometimes may not have started as a singer/songwriter, but she's always been a performer. Involved in both dance and musical theater throughout her childhood, Charlotte eventually picked up the guitar when she was 14 and began writing and performing her own compositions. Before graduating high school and moving on to the New School in New York City's Greenwich Village, she had already released several homemade EPs and a live CD. It was during college that Charlotte Sometimes was born as a stage persona. The moniker was taken from a book written by Penelope Farmer -- the same book, incidentally, that inspired the Cure to write a song of the same name. After signing with Geffen/Interscope Records, Charlotte Sometimes released her debut album, Waves and the Both of Us, in 2008. - All Music Guide (by Katherine Fulton)

Singer Charlotte Sometimes sang at Jeff Feldman's birthday party at his Denville home, after Feldman wrote to the singer and said how her song "Toy Soldier" inspired the reunion of he and his long lost love. - Daily Record

Last night, Melissa and I went to see a performance at Rockwood on the Lower East Side. The singer was Charlotte Sometimes. Melissa profiled her years ago in a magazine, and has continued to be a fan. Now I’m a fan! Charlotte Sometimes had a ridiculously phenomenal voice (download her free EP here).
I think Melissa was laughing at me during the show. First I was distracted because the singer’s parents were sitting in the front row and rocking out to her songs about sex. Ha! But even more distracting was the good-looking pianist on stage. I was having fantasies of playing “Chopsticks” next to him. I’m not usually one for musicians, but playing the piano is pretty romantic, no?

Related: 10 Lies Women Tell Themselves About Men and Love

I couldn’t tell his age, though, and Melissa was no help. For her, a guy could be 22 or 32. I thought I was getting better at that, but Piano Man was a tough call.

At dinner, Melissa and I started talking about how younger men are leaner with tighter skin. Melissa said a good question to ask myself is, “Is he bloated enough to be my age?” HAHAHA!! (I’m 31, btw.) Then she continued: “On the other hand, what if a guy has just been a non-drinker for the past ten years?” Meaning, he could look 22 but be a 32-year-old teetotaler.

We probably should have asked Charlotte Sometimes herself about the Piano Man, but…I didn’t feel like being that girl. Clearly I am still hesitant to get into anything with the opposite sex. We better fix that, though, ladies—and fast! I gotta get my mojo back! - SHINE from yahoo

We recently spoke with pop artist Charlotte Sometimes, regard ing her new EP Sideways, her affairs with the music indus­try, and what the future holds for her.



Maria@RRR: Thanks for tak ing time to do this inter view. Give us a bit of back­ground on your self and your career so far?‘

Charlotte Sometimes: I’ve been per form ing since I was 3 as a dancer… then switched to music around 15. Signed to Crush Management when I was 16 and made my major debut in 2008 with Geffen Records. I toured the coun try about 8 times in a year and a half! It was crazy. I am cur rently unsigned and I am work ing with a new man age ment com pany that I love! So in a way it’s like I’m start ing all over again.

Maria@RRR: Guide us through the writ ing and record ing process for your new EP Sideways…

Charlotte Sometimes: When I left my man age ment com pany at first I had a really bad taste in my mouth. I also had some really trau matic expe ri ences on tour. I started to look at music and the peo ple in the busi ness as the enemy. I was in a really dark place. But even though I thought music was the enemy I couldn’t help but write music! That’s when I fell in love with it all over again and used the music to get out those bit ter and hurt feel ings so I could move on and have clo sure in my life.

Maria@RRR: What inspired the songs on the EP? What does the title mean?

Charlotte Sometimes: The songs were inspired by being let down in the indus try mostly. Feeling taken advan tage of. Also falling in love! Ha but really, it’s mostly about me com ing into my own as an artist and not blam ing any body for any­thing just tak ing an in depth look at my life, my past, and decid ing where to go from there… and also allow ing myself to be upset and be ok with that.

Maria@RRR: In what ways are the songs sim i lar or dif fer ent to your pre vi­ous mate r ial? They sound more acoustic…

Charlotte Sometimes: This EP is def i nitely more me. I come from folk-acoustic roots so I wanted to get back in touch with that. The beats were fun, but it doesn’t reflect the music I lis ten to. I wanted it to be more tan gi ble and real. I like play ing small shows and really putting my heart into every word I sing, so this was an excel lent chance to do that.

Maria@RRR: How do you feel you’ve changed as a per son and musi cian since 2008’s Waves And The Both Of Us?

Charlotte Sometimes: I am more hum ble and appre cia tive, but I am also so much stronger as a woman. I am not afraid to make peo ple unhappy and I don’t try to change what I can’t change. I accept who I am and the peo ple around me. Also, I am on crazy pills, so that just helps in gen eral! haha!

My music reflects who I am now, so it’s not all about boys! Its mostly about life expe ri ences. I’m an adult now and most of the songs I wrote on Waves… I wrote when I was 16.

Maria@RRR: What prompted you to give the EP away to your fans for free?

Charlotte Sometimes: I thought of it as a re-education to what Charlotte Sometimes is all about. I thought it wasn’t fair to charge peo ple on some thing I made so per sonal. I wanted any one who wanted it to have it. It’s my gift to my fans for being so accep tive and loyal to me.

Maria@RRR: You are cur rently unsigned, right? How did this come about and what hap pened with your pre vi ous label, Geffen Records?

Charlotte Sometimes: Yes I am unsigned. Long story short. Geffen became Interscope and man age ment and label never agreed on any thing. It is what it is.

Maria@RRR: How did you get your start in the music industry?

Charlotte Sometimes: I did a show case for Sony when I was 16… I was hand ing out my press kits and send ing them every where! Just hop ing some one would lis ten, and they did!

Maria@RRR: Now onto the future, are there plans to hit the road any­time soon?

Charlotte Sometimes: I’d love to tour again, but I can’t really afford to fund my own tour right now. So I am hop ing I can work that out soon!

Maria@RRR: Is the EP a taste of per haps, an upcom ing full-length album you may be work ing on?

Charlotte Sometimes: Yes! I am record ing another 3 songs next week that will be added to the EP… then another 4 to make the album.

Maria@RRR: What does the next year hold in store for you?

Charlotte Sometimes: You tell me! ha

Maria@RRR: Before we leave you, what are your favorite albums of 2010 so far, and what releases are you look ing for ward to?

Charlotte Sometimes: Josh Ritter’s new CD is amaz ing! What a bril liant writer and per former. I love every thing he does! GET IT!

Maria@RRR: Thanks again for doing this inter view. Is there any thing else you’d like to add?

Charlotte Sometimes: You can pick up my EP FOR FREE HERE

Do as the lovely lady says and pick up her Sideways EP for free. Need some con vinc ing (other than the fact that it’s FREE)? Check out our review of the album here. - Review Rinse Repeat

Artist: Charlotte Sometimes
Album: Sideways EP
Label: Unsigned
Release Date: May 14th
Genre: Pop
MySpace | Website | Buy
Rating:


In the mod ern music indus try, sec ond chances are hard to find. Oftentimes, a band or artist will find them selves in the spot light (or, rather, semi-spotlight) for only a few short months, or even weeks, before the light shuts off, often­times for good. After being dropped by Geffen (despite a phe nom e nal debut), it looked like this would be the case for New Jersey singer-songwriter Jessica Poland, who is bet ter known by her stage name: Charlotte Sometimes. However, instead of giv ing up, Jessica decided to screw the major label that dropped her over in the best way pos si ble: by self-releasing a free EP that con tains some of the best songs of her career to date.

The Sideways EP kicks off with the acoustic strum ming of “Bad Bad World,” which, it turns out, is a good, good song. Noticeably lack ing of the sex ual frus­tra tion that per me ated much of her debut, the song sum ma rizes all that is great about Charlotte Sometimes. In the same song, she man ages to chan nel such var ied enti ties as Taylor Swift and the Quinn sis ters, and the ulti mate prod uct is a stun ning piece of mature, adult pop that belongs on Top 40 sta­tions as much as any Train or Lady Antebellum song. Fortunately, the EP fol lows up this momen tum with “Better Than This,” and, while the song may not be bet ter than “Bad Bad World,” it is much bet ter than most of the wail ing songstresses try ing to make a mark on the scene. Every song in the EP con tin­ues in a sim i lar fash ion, with every song set ting forth another pop gem that should be trea sured for years. However, no song demon strates this bet ter than EP closer “Hurt The Good.” While it may stray to the over dra matic, it truly rep­re sents Jessica’s bril liance at its best, com bin ing beau ti ful har monies, near-sultry singing, and haunt ing wails and hums set over a med ley of piano and vio lin to form a solid, 3-minute masterpiece.

With Sideways, Jessica (aka Charlotte Sometimes) has released some of the best songs of her career (to date). Needless to say, she deserves a sec ond chance. With such gems and clas sics as “Bad Bad World,” and “Hurt The Good” now in her cat a log, it seems the only thing she is now miss ing is a hit. Of course, for that, all she needs is some pro mo tion. Her music can eas ily say the rest.

Track Listing:
1. Bad Bad World
2. Better Than This
3. Sideways
4. Call Me Up
5. Ooh Love
6. Hurt The Good

Similar To: A Fine Frenzy, Marie Digby, Automatic Loveletter, The Hush Sound,

Review by: Neepam Shah - Review Rinse Repeat

Micah Jesse- "really diggin her sound. unique!" 2010 - www.twitter.com/micahjesse

Click here for a free download of this EP.

There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all its virtues are of no avail. -Aldous Huxley

I'll say it at the beginning before I say it at the end. Geffen Records should regret letting Jessica Poland (aka Charlotte Sometimes) go. I don't know the rationale behind the decision, whether it was album sales, label shakeup, or fear of an impending apocalypse. One thing I do know, however, is you do not let someone with her kind of talent walk out your door.

This is Jessica's second offering under the 'Charlotte Sometimes' moniker -- I don't count her self-titled EP from '08 which served more as a promo to "Waves and the Both of Us" -- and she makes the most of it. Sophomore slump? Not a chance. The EP is not as polished sonically, as you might expect, but it's real. It allows 'Charlotte' to showcase her greatest instrument -- vocals. The constant and sometimes overbearing beats are replaced with a more acoustic, laid back feel. Her vocals are brought to the forefront and clearly shine throughout, whereas on Waves they had a tendency to get drowned out amongst the smorgasbord of instrumentation.

The outing begins with a song of pain and disarray in "Bad Bad World." You can feel 'Charlotte' may have gotten one too many pats on the back after the whole label fiasco. Not that being comforted is a bad thing, but if you've ever been in a hole and you hear the same boilerplate message of encouragement over and over, it tends to get old. Sometimes you just have to get over it on your on time, on your own schedule. She proudly shows her wounds, singing, "Everyone says it's gonna get better/Nobody knows when the dust will settle/Everybody thinks they know/Better, better." It's a fantastic way to begin the EP, and it really should be getting airtime right now.

Later we get to "Sideways" and "Ooh Love," which have two divergent messages and sounds, but both have one thing in common; beautiful background harmonies. I've never really been a fan of the oohs and ahhs and ba da bas, but they really, truly make each song better. Rather than oversaturating it with another instrument, sometimes something so simple makes all the difference. With the title track, we're brought in to her psyche after working so hard to finally get to a point which nearly every artist strives for (major label), only to have it taken away as quickly as she got it. While "Ooh Love" is about -- well, I think the title more than accurately describes it. It's the crown jewel for her as far as vocals are concerned, as she manages to move from a sensual delivery to a wonderful falsetto in the blink of an eye. With "Call Me Up" we get the most uptempo track on the EP, and it's a good change of pace. Its hook is incredibly catchy and will bounce around your head for days on end. Finally, "Hurt the Good" completes the EP with a lovely arrangement of piano and violin. Again, I can't say enough about her voice as it's seemingly always perfectly aligned with the music.

"Sideways" turns out to be a nice introspective journey through the last couple years of 'Charlotte Sometimes.' It offers six new tracks without a single miss. That's never easy, especially when you don't have the support of a major label. She's an artist that should break out any time now. How she hasn't so far, I do not know. But she's still young and she will if her new songs are any indication. Geffen made a major mistake, but us listeners reap the benefits. So give it a spin. It only costs zero US dollars, which translates to free anywhere you are. - Melodic.net