Lorraine Ferro has discovered that recording a CD is much cheaper than years of psychotherapy.

Her disc Languishing In Turbulence deals with the ups and downs (mostly downs) of relationships as only someone who has gone through the emotional roller-coasters can. In the liner notes, Ferro thanks "all [her] ex's... [y]ou gave me the material for a million hit songs." Well, that might be stretching things a bit, since very little on Languishing In Turbulence approaches hit singles territory.

In fact, this disc proves to be a little difficult to get into at first - and it's not because of the raw nerve endings that are strewn throughout. Tracks like "Happy" and "Religion" just aren't the kind of grabbers that they need to be for a release like this, trapping the listener with powerful hooks and messages and making them want to listen to the entire CD to see if it can live up to those early expectations. As they stand now, those "early expectations" on the first listen or two of the first tracks ends up being, "Big deal."

Then again, it is those repeat listens that opens up some of the messages that Ferro wants people to hear. Take the song "Religion," where Ferro seems to lash out at some Bible-beaters who put more in ther faith than in the love of their family. Sample lyric: "In the dark he sits alone / Thirsty as a dying rose / While your [sic] ripping all your clothes grieving for Jerusalem".

While there are glimmers of personal hope on Languishing In Turbulence ("Happy," "Open Door"), the bulk of the songs deal with someone dealing with the emotional scars life and relationships have to offer while discovering themselves ("Be Kind To Me," "Screaming & Laughing," "Copycat"). But as hard as Ferro tries to tell stories through her songs (and maybe tries to exorcise some demons from her past), the music itself never seems to click, and a lot of the power of these tracks is left by the wayside. (To be fair, part of the problem could be with co-writer Ava Parnass and producer/co-writer Teddy Kumpel.)

It's not that baring one's soul is a bad thing; musicians have been doing that since the beginning of time. But in order for the message to really be delivered in a powerful way, you need strong songwriting to back it up. Ferro has the skills of the words, but sadly, Languishing In Turbulence suffers because it is missing the strong songwriting. Put a better collection of music behind her, and Ferro could well be the Carly Simon or Carole King of this generation - but she isn't there yet.

Rating: C+

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