Review of Melora's cd 'All the Way to Mars'

by melorafan.com's music director: Shoshana Green

Melora Hardin has assembled an eclectic collection of songs for All the Way to Mars, her new album co-produced by Richard Jay-Alexander and Ben Toth. The songs move from musical theatre to pop ballad to standards and back again. While this progression lives up to the album’s title, it’s almost too abrupt, making it difficult for the listener to experience a through line. As a sampling of Hardin’s range and vocal talents, All the Way to Mars accomplishes its goals. As an album, however, it’s not cohesive, and the scattershot nature of the tracks doesn’t totally convey who Hardin is musically.

The album opens with “Raise the Roof,” a song from Andrew Lippa’s musical version of The Wild Party. Hardin literally does raise the roof with her strong, spot-on rendition. With “Raise the Roof” and Stephen Sondheim’s “Everybody Says Don’t,” Hardin makes a strong case for a career as a musical theatre performer. Her other musical theatre selections, however, don’t do much to help her cause. “Roxie” from Kander and Ebb’s Chicago and “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables are not the most exciting songs out of context of the respective shows. While Hardin does a fine job on them, she could have spent more album space exploring better material. She never really sinks her teeth into any musical theatre ballads (“I Dreamed a Dream” leans more toward pop ballad than musical theatre), ones that would require her to act an emotional moment. She has the acting skills, of course, and has said she wants to do more musical theatre, so what is she waiting for?

Hardin also wastes a good amount of album space on songs from her previous album Purr. She’s progressed so much since its release 10 years ago that tracks like “All Messed Up” and “Teenager,” which fit perfectly on Purr, are now holding her back. Personally, I am not a fan of “A Boy and His Cat.” Many people enjoy it, but to me it is juvenile, and it’s appearance on All the Way to Mars further stunts Hardin’s musical growth. If Hardin was looking to showcase her cute side, her new song “Ride Your Rocket” and the clever, entertaining “He’s So Married” (by Jimmie Dodd and Will Flower) are really all she needs.

Some of her new songs are gorgeous, particularly “Fading Away,” a lyrical depiction of a fading relationship which contains some of Hardin’s best lyrics to date. “Makin’ Love,” another melodic ballad, is more musically complex and contains a wider range of emotion. Her voice both soars and conveys a darkness.

Hardin has certainly raised the bar with All the Way to Mars, but she still has a lot of musical territory to explore. She’s gone all the way to Mars, but she’s more than proven that she can go even farther.




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