Leighton Meester's days as the star of a teenage CW drama are long gone. After an incredibly successful run on Broadway with James Franco in Of Mice And Men, Meester is ready to reintroduce herself — this time as a musical muse.
Her debut album, Heartstrings, dropped on October 27th. For nine tracks, Meester puts her pop past behind her and instead treads nicely in the singer/songwriter waters. It's contemporary folk with some serious star power. Her approach is gentle and refreshing. Compared to other major names out there, Meester's hype machine was relatively quiet. But, it has paid off in spades. She's kept her audience guessing and that's the best kind of hype an artist can have, really.
Heartstrings is a dreamy singer-songwriter narrative of guarded love, irony and heartache. Written by Meester and produced by Jeff Trott (Sheryl Crow, Augustana), the nine-song album bares the influence of such artists as Stevie Nicks, Tori Amos, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. "I wrote Heartstrings as a process of relief, and working with Jeff allowed the songs themselves to grow as much as they could, which was considerable,” says Leighton. “Our approach was to flesh out the atmosphere around the feeling of each song with preproduction and then added the spontaneity of a live room for recording."
Leighton Meester wsg Cassaundra Fitch
Monday, Feb. 23
The Magic Bag Ferndale, MI $20