Michelle Green - Only When I’m Smiling



Title: Only When I’m Smiling
Release Date: August 2011
Recorded: May-August 2011
Genre: Indie pop, electropop, folk pop
Length: 46:02
Label: Chaos Records
Producer: Ryan Ross Hernandez, Red X, Gia Rose

Tracklisting
1. You Just Lost Your Lover (feat. Ryan Ross Hernandez) (3:18)
2. Only When I’m Smiling (4:27)
3. Exiled (2:57)
4. Sold My Soul (5:02)
5. When You Call Out My Name (3:34)
6. You Drive Me Crazy (4:21)
7. Angels And Demons (Your Choice) (2:45)
8. Everything’s Fading (3:15)
9. Finding Beauty In The Aftermath (4:31)
10. One Voice, One Heart, One Love (5:13)
11. They Build Us Up, To Watch Us Fall (feat. Katie Coyle) (4:47)
12. As The Angels Carry Me Home (3:52)

Introduction
Only When I’m Smiling is the second studio album from 16 year old English Indie pop singer-songwriter, Michelle Green. Set for release on August 21, 2011 by Chaos Records. Produced by Ryan Ross Hernandez, Red X and Gia Rose, the album has gained a lot of interest in the past few weeks in the run up to the album’s release date, as an earlier recorded version of You Just Lost Your Lover was released as a promo single, the song however failed to chart which has put the album under some intense scrutiny, questioning whether Michelle Green is just a one hit wonder.
So as the second half of the year is upon on us and several albums have already defined the music year so far with the likes of Alicia Lena, Katie Coyle, Glamazon, Riot In The Boulevard, Cherise and many more dominating the music industry it seems like the pressure is on the 16 year old indie pop songstress to prove that she is here for the long term, as everyone knows, the second album is the one that defines the artist, it’s where we find out what the artist is made of and whether they really have the ability to make it in the industry, so this is the most important stage of Michelle Green’s career so far, will the result by glorious success or catastrophic failure, it looks like only time will tell.

Background
In 2010 a fifteen year old singer-songwriter from Camden, London shot onto the music scene with her debut album The Voice Of Me, it became an instant success selling over four and a half million copies worldwide and peaking at number #1 on the Chart Heat album charts, it also spawned 3 huge Top20 singles, the number two hit Fifteen and Dark Days and Red Symphony, both peaking at number 1 on the Top20 Airplay Charts, so far she has sold over 7,250,000 records worldwide since her debut just over a year ago.
Michelle began working on the new songs for the album since the beginning of this year, You Just Lost Your Lover was born in January, seemingly written about her break-up from Matty but she confirmed in a recent interview that it wasn’t specifically about the young rapper, “Maybe subconsciously it appeared in the song but that wasn’t my intention when I was writing it nor was it the inspiration. However, people will interpret things in their own way and if that’s how It’s interpreted then I’m completely fine with that.”
She took a break from touring in March and spent time in London with her family and friends during this time she created the majority of the songs from the album and they were almost all completely composed on the piano, She stated in another recent interview that she was most proud of the songs on this album and claims that she feels that she’s grown up a lot since her debut album almost exactly one year ago. Songs like Finding Beauty In The Aftermath, As The Angels Carry Me Home and They Build Us Up, To Watch Us Fall show a slight change in musical direction as Michelle decided to put more emphasis on the electropop sound that she debuted only briefly on The Voice Of Me.
She began recording promo versions of the songs at her home studio that she recently had built in her house in Camden and the promo version of You Just Lost Your Lover was released as a way to test out the new material and see how it works out, the result however, was considered somewhat of a disappointment as the song failed to chart, however the full studio version is expected to be released as the lead single from the album, it’s evident that she believes in these new songs and she seems intent on making her own decisions and trusting her own heart and instincts, will it pay off?.

Recording
Michelle began recording the album at The Hit Factory in New York between June and August 2011, she enlisted the help of producers, Ryan Ross Hernandez, Red X and Gia Rose, all of which brought their own skills to the table, Hernandez focussing on the purity of the instrumentals, Red X was primarily overseeing the Electronica instruments and Gia Rose helped push the Electropop sound to the forefront of the album and of course voice her opinions on the album, good and bad.
The recording process was somewhat inconsistent, as sessions would go on for two weeks then break for a period before the recording process continued, Michelle claims that it was very “stop and start.” Which she maintains has benefitted the album as she said in a recent interview, “I think it was better to have a break between recording sessions, I don’t think we could have made the album as well as it turned out had we have all spent a fixed period of time together in the studio, so I definitely think that the breaks helped the album a lot more, it also gave me a lot more creative freedom, where I could go away and re-work some songs that I felt weren’t working so well, so all in all I think the recording process benefitted the album immensely.”

Songwriters Analysis
“This album is probably the most important thing I’ve ever had to work on, Those who have followed me since my debut last year will no doubt be aware that the chance to become a musician is something I’ve wanted since I can remember so for me this had to be the best record I’ll ever make, I’ve put so much thought into this record and although the songs didn’t form until earlier this year, this second album was already in my thoughts since the day I released The Voice Of Me, I think we’re all aware of how important the second record is, it’s been spoken about so often about how the second album makes or breaks people’s careers, it’s the diving line, it separates the good from the great and it’s where you form the foundations for your future and it’s beyond any kind of pressure I’ve ever had to deal with, the fact that the rest of my career could be decided with this record is terrifying.
However I think I’ve achieved my golden moment with this album, it encompasses my debut by far and if I never make another record in my life I’ll know that I’ve gone out in style because I honestly think that I’ve created a really good record, something I can look at and be proud of, if my life doesn’t turn out the way I planned, I’ll still be able to look on this album and say, that’s what I achieved and the fact that I wrote the whole album, where on my debut I had some help from outside songwriters just makes it so much better, I can be proud of what I’ve created whether it has success or not, I honestly believe that this is my golden moment, maybe it’s not who knows but without being negative about myself, I honestly don’t know if I could outdo this album, but I’ll surely try, providing I get to continue to live my dream and have a long future in the music industry, I certainly feel well equipped for it.
The sound is slightly different from that of my debut album, The Voice Of Me was heavily influenced by a more grand sound, I performed some of the songs from that record with a freaking orchestra, at fifteen years old, how insane is that?, But I think this album will show the growth, I think maybe If I have one negative about my debut album is that I tried too hard to attempt to stay away from the mainstream pop sound, I used the orchestra which is something I’ve always wanted to do, but I think I just tried to move away from mainstream pop a little too much, with this record, I think it shows more of me, who I am, the kind of music that inspired it, it feels more modern, I think The Voice Of Me was kinda like, Woaaah this fifteen year old girl is doing these kinda old fashioned sounding songs, but now it’s sort of like, Ok, music is moving forward and I’m gonna create something that feels more right for me, a modern sound with the lyrics and music to match.
As you can tell I’m extremely excited about the record, so all there is to do now is sit back and listen, I hope you all enjoy what I’ve done, I love you all.”
- Michelle Green xx

Personnel
Michelle Green – Vocals, Piano, Keyboards, Synthesizers
Aaron Pritchard – Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals
Jamie Ellison – Drums, Percussion
Joanie Deacon – Cello (track 2 and 10)
Katie Coyle – Acoustic Guitar, Vocals (track 11)
Ryan Ross Hernandez – Producer, Engineer, Mixing, Guitar (track 1)
Red X – Producer
Gia Rose – Producer, Mastering
Lindsey Moore – Artwork Design, Photography

1. You Just Lost Your Lover (feat. Ryan Ross Hernandez) (3:18)



Track Description
The song opens up with repetitive guitar chords by Ryan Ross Hernandez with his trademark blues influence already at the forefront of the song and the inclusion of a Jazz beat during the chorus build the song up perfectly. The quirky indie nature of Michelle’s voice is still there on this song and with the pressure on her following the success of her last album, it’s evident that she had to open the album well, despite the promo version of the song failing to chart, it’s clear that she believe’s in the song and maintained that the studio version is without doubt a better version, the song builds up slowly to the chorus but as Michelle starts to sing the pre-chorus, “A Cheater, A Killer, A Beater, A Thriller/A Liar, A Crier, A Lover I Admire/A Warmth Of Feeling Across My Heart/Appeared When I Saw You From The Start.” The song hits the highest point of the song in a similar way to the final forty seconds of Ellie Goulding’s cover of Your Song.

As the song hits it peak height at the chorus it slowly softens again, Michelle’s voice seems a lot more powerful this time around but it seems as though she’s took on this breezy indie pop vocal style that suits the song perfectly, her previous songs have shown off the very power and range of her voice but it’s a lot more laid back and feels less forced on the song, she shows a controlled and maturity with her vocals on this track but it just seems to give the song more subtlety, she does have a power moment on the song as she holds an 8 second note during the bridge.
The maturity of her song could be put down to two possible things, the fact that she’s grown as a vocalist since her debut album over a year ago or possibly the influence of Ryan Ross Hernandez who is famed for the softness of his voice and his ability to make a great song without forcing huge notes, whatever the reasons is, it seems to work.

The lyrics are powerful and tug at the heart strings at times and this is Michelle’s first attempt at create an album of songs solely written by herself, composing them all on the piano seems to have added another string to her bow and as Michelle sings out the penultimate line of the song, the feeling of being overwhelmed by the build, rise and then soft ending to a beautiful song.

Songwriter’s Analysis
“This is actually the first song I finished for the album, I finished writing the song in February and it was that sort of feeling like, This is different in comparison to what I’ve previously done, it’s got a more modern feel and it’s got more of a blues emphasis, obviously that’s one of those reasons why I attempted to get Ryan Ross Hernandez to play guitar on the track, it was a case of, Who’s the best blues guitarist around right now, It’s Ryan of course and I was like amazed when he agreed to feature on it, he then said he’d be interested in having a production role on the album and it was like perfect.
The song isn’t written specifically about Matty or any other relationship, it’s obviously gonna be interpreted that way though which is fine with me, I don’t have a problem with it, people will interpret things differently and that’s fine, the world is all about opinion so I don’t have a problem with that.
In terms of the song writing process, it was kinda different, well the whole album was kinda different to be honest, I never once sat down and thought Ok, I need to create twelve songs for this album, I never once forced myself to write anything, which was a completely different approach to how I made the first album, that was more like weeks after weeks of sitting in a room with writers to come up with the songs, this was essentially me writing an album in the most natural way possible, the songs came over time, I never rushed anything and I think the album has benefitted from it and I’m really proud of it.”
- Michelle Green

Lyrics
Everything I Wanted, Everything I’ve Lost
Everything I’ve Been Given, Goes And Now I Pay The Cost
I Feel Myself Crying And Feeling All Alone
I Feel Myself Dying And My Tears Dry On Their Own
---
Wondering Why You Came Into My Life
Just To Cause Me So Much Pain
Wondering Why You Lied To Me
I Won’t Fall For It Again
---
You’ll Realise The Mistake You’ve Made
And It Will Make You So Mad
You’ll Feel Regret And Dissapointment Now
Because I’m The Best You’ve Ever Had
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A Cheater, A Killer, A Beater, A Thriller
A Liar, A Crier, A Lover I Admire
A Warmth Of Feeling Across My Heart
Appeared When I Saw You From The Start
---
And You … You Just Lost Your Lover
From One Kiss To Another
Oh, Oh, Oh, You … You Just Lost Your Lover
You’ll Never Find Another
---
You Built Me Up Just To Break Me Down
You’ve Gone Too Far This Time, I’m Leaving Town
Why Would You Hurt Me When You Said I Was The One
You’ve Hurt Me Too Much And Now I Am Gone
---
And You … You Just Lost Your Lover
From One Kiss To Another
Oh, Oh, Oh, You … You Just Lost Your Lover
And You’ll Never Find Another
---
You Can Beg And Beg Me To Forgive You
But It’s Not A One Time Thing
You Don’t Know How To Be True
So I … I’m Gonna Leave You
---
And You … You Just Lost Your Lover
And I … I’m Hiding Undercover
You … You Just Love Your Lover
From, One Kiss To Another
You Just Lost Your Love {Whispers}

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