![]() The songs are melodically bulletproof, as you might expect, given Michaels’ pedigree, and the grab-bag of styles is well handled. The gently fingerpicked History – “do you cry when movies hit home? / Have you ever had an existential crisis?” – meanwhile, is precisely the kind of delicate melancholia that TikTok users seem to find irresistible: it sounds like it’s waiting to soundtrack a 15-second video of autumn leaves, sunsets, old school photos, etc. It’s certainly got a lot in the way of neurotic lyrical self-examination, but sets it in a selection box of currently fashionable pop styles: a bit of smooth 80s AOR here (Pessimist), a touch of piano balladry there (Little Did I Know), a whisper of late 80s alt-rock about the guitars (Orange Magic), a substantial dose of tastefully done dance pop (Lie Like This, Undertone). ![]() “Well, yeah – I fucking better be.” The chorus is nailed-on, the sound a more streamlined, glossy, LA take on the sort of pop-grunge revivalism found on Beabadoobee’s debut album, suggesting that Michaels’ solo niche might be as a kind of Alanis Morissette for the Snapchat generation.īut that’s not the way the rest of Not in Chronological Order pans out. “You tell me not to worry, I’m the only thing you see,” she sings. The video features Michaels as a serial killer, bloodily offing a succession of her partner’s former girlfriends with a baseball bat and a chainsaw. That said, Michaels doesn’t look or sound much like a wallflower on All Your Exes, one of the tracks plucked from her belated debut album in advance of its release. ![]() Apparently, she preferred it that way: she had stage fright, compounded by the way Issues fast-tracked her into stadium gigs and awards shows. But she’s mostly retreated again to a background role, co-writing more hits for Gomez, a track on Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia and a sizeable chunk of Demi Lovato’s recently released comeback album. She released a couple more singles and a handful of EPs, and had another big streaming hit by co-writing and duetting on JP Saxe’s If the World Was Ending, nominated for song of the year at the 2021 Grammys. There were equally high-profile support slots on tours by Shawn Mendes, Maroon 5 and former One Direction star Niall Horan. She has a distinctive voice – husky, with a tendency to slur her words that lends a certain nonchalant, conversational air to her soul-baring lyrics – and a succession of high-profile appearances as guest vocalist on other artists’ singles, not least Clean Bandit’s I Miss You. Her debut single as an artist, Issues, was another vast success: over a billion streams on Spotify alone. Julia Michaels: Not in Chronological Order album cover. By the age of 24, she had co-authored 10 platinum singles – among them Justin Bieber’s 10m-selling Sorry, Ed Sheeran’s Dive and a string of hits for Selena Gomez – establishing herself as the kind of writer who could flit with ease between teen pop artists, R&B singers, country stars, dance producers requiring a vocal melody and even metal bands whose material needed a polish: she is the thread that improbably links Rita Ora to Linkin Park. In 2017, she looked remarkably like a pop phenomenon in waiting, having served an extraordinary apprenticeship as a songwriter for hire. The career of Julia Michaels is a case in point. But there’s a distinct lack of traffic in the opposite direction, suggesting the journey from the backroom to the centre of attention is more vexing. The sheer number of them suggests it’s a relatively straightforward transition to make. T he world of the songwriter for hire is filled with ex-performers: former pop stars, indie rockers and – in the case of Max Martin – glam metal frontmen who slipped gratefully into the background when success, or their desire to be in the spotlight, faded.
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