Skin

1	Lover Please 3:26
2	The Prison 4:59
3	Walking On Water 3:04
4	Down To One 3:56
5	Goodnight 3:33
6	It's Only Me 3:40
7	I Want To Be In Love 3:34
8	Please Forgive Me 4:43
9	The Different 4:06
10	Heal Me 3:39

Barnes & Noble

Like Bruce Springsteen -- to whom she's often been compared -- Melissa Etheridge is at her best when she's trying to get something off her chest. And on this sometimes stark, sometimes overwrought disc, she's got plenty of passion-filled subject matter, chiefly the crumbling of her lengthy romance with filmmaker Julie Cypher. Skin is a startlingly personal affair, from the withering lyrics that punctuate "Lover Please" to the yearning expressed on the poignant, anthemic "I Want to Be in Love." In sharp contrast to recent outings, Etheridge doesn't rely on the raw power of a full band to shore up her compositions: In fact, with the exception of a handful of drum tracks, virtually every note on Skin -- guitar, keyboard, harmonica -- is Melissa's doing. At times, that makes for a gentler, more introspective sound (as evidenced by the introspective "Walking on Water") than one usually associates with Etheridge, but don't assume that she can't rock out all by herself; the country-blues wail of "The Prison" proves otherwise. While dominated by dark tones, Skin is ultimately a redemptive journey rather than a mope-fest: By closing with the hopeful "Heal Me," Etheridge indicates that blue skies await over the horizon. David Sprague

All Music Guide

If ever there was a perfect breakup album, this is it. Skin is Melissa Etheridge's first album since she split with her long-term partner and it takes you on a tour of the hurt, healing, and the journey of making sense of it all. Travel through the pain, longing, and lamenting along with Etheridge herself as she goes "looking for a little salvation." In her own raw, strength-of-heart style and that husky voice of hers, Etheridge sings about the long, trying process that one usually undergoes in order to find the answers, forgiveness, and clues about losing and staying in the game of love. The opening track, "Lover Please," is an aggressive tune where your heroine, wounded heart in hand, sings with true emotion, asking, "Didn't I love you right?" On the track "The Prison," Etheridge sings in a quavering and romantic voice about her torment, while she is "trying to get out of my skin." Etheridge's harmonica playing on this track is so potent, it makes it all the more harder to swallow. Yet as the songs progress, so does Etheridge's strength. Known for her sensibility for raw emotion, Etheridge delivers nothing less. And on the nostalgic track "Walking on Water," you can sense that she is gaining some footing on her pain and beginning to pick herself up again. But the ballad-like "Down to One" knocks your heart out with one whack as she croons, "my heart is a traitor." Back to square one. The album climaxes and Etheridge sorts through her demons with simple, heart-felt lyrics that hit the spot right through to the truth. Etheridge gets funky on the groovy track "Goodnight" and the fresh-sounding, freewheelin' "I Want to Be in Love." But it is her unbridled honesty that drives this album right into your gut. Etheridge is not alone in her plight through anger, confusion, yearnings for forgiveness, acceptance, and the process of starting over. She reveals the depth of her pain on the dark track "Heal Me." Like love, this album simply leaves that infamously ambiguous mystery lingering in the air: Why do people pay so much for love? And Etheridge does it with such conviction, you cannot help but listen closely. Kerry L. Smith