CD Review: Melissa Etheridge

4th Street Feeling (Island)

By Michael Gallucci on Wed, Sep 5, 2012 at 4:00 am

[
      {

        
        "name": "Ad - NativeInline - Injected",
        "component": "38482495",
        "insertPoint": "3",
        "requiredCountToDisplay": "5"
      },{


        "name": "Real 1 Player (r2) - Inline",
        "component": "38482494",
        "insertPoint": "2/3",
        "requiredCountToDisplay": "9"
      }
    ]

On her last album, 2010's Fearless Love, Melissa Etheridge sounded ready to fight, taking on anti-gay-marriage supporters with her toughest set of songs in years. She takes a breath on her 12th album, checking in with a bluesy, twangy set that's more bar-band bluster than change-the-world pensive. The best songs on 4th Street Feeling (the R&B-leaning title track, the backroads country twang of "Falling Up") sound folksy, worn-in, and sorta lazy.