Jason Chu

Glad to see Amanda Marshall back on the scene after a two-decade absence. Heavy Lifting has some very clever songwriting and Marshall’s vocals have only gotten better, but the album itself is unexpectedly one-note both in its sound (rock) and lyrical content (scorned woman). Nevertheless, it’s awesome to hear her voice again and I hope it’s not another twenty years for a new album.

Thematically it gets old pretty fast. JLo gushes about being in love with Ben and it's track after track about it. You can tell when JLo's writing the lyrics because they are super diary-like and wordy (especially on Midnight Trip to Vegas). I'm not really a fan of lyrics that are too on-the-nose, so this doesn't do it for me. There are a handful of tracks that are worthy of a listen (the title track, Hearts and Flowers, Broken Like Me, This Time Around), but most of it is cringe.