Rachael McCormack- This is my Identity review

North Dublin singer/songwriter Rachael McCormack  offers her ‘identity’ in the form of a ten track début album entitled ‘This is My Identity’. Don’t let the strong-sounding name fool you though, this album fails to live up to any expectations suggested by its title.

It gets off to a good start with Keep Believing, it’s an empowered introduction to the ten track album, kicking off with a motorcycle roar. This sax fuelled track veers to  the edge of blues rock, following a simple and familiar lyrical pattern with a distinctive twist. It’s a shame then that this strong start is not built on as the album the album quickly tumbles into mediocrity.

What follows is a collection of radio friendly tracks tinged with rock and exuding hopefulness. Take third track Everytime for example; McCormack sings of finding successes in the form of a bed for the night at The Ritz and a bottle of pink Champagne, set against a flat tune and pub-rock music.

Am I Still Breathing? has a similar feel. Here McCormack’s Americanised lyrics (“Here I am sitting at the back of the movies…”) and vocals that strain out of her natural range are what render it cringeworthy. It is difficult to understand what she is trying to achieve with this ill-fitting teen-movie style rock.

This mediocre pop rock theme is relentless despite the strong start to ‘This is My Identity’: Karaoke, My Wonderful Disease, Daddy Please Take Me Home, and Under the Bullet all maintain the middle of the road sound that is trying incredibly hard to be deep and quirky, but really struggling to do so.

There is one glaringly obvious flaw here and that is irony. The album is called ‘This is my Identity’ but there is none to be found on the album. The cover, makeshifted on photoshop you would imagine, suggests a rock chick with conviction as the singer straddles a motorcycle with the title above her, it says: ‘This is me, deal with it’.

The majority of the album is choppy, unsettled and fails to solidify any image or style of its own. There is no identity here and there is no real insight into what McCormack is about as an artist.  What is her identity? Is it the seemingly tough chick on the motorcycle or is it the starry-eyed, run of the mill singer found on all but one track?