There’s no limit to Melanie Rogers’ potential. The young singer/songwriter has recently endured a heartbreaking fracture in her relationship with the church and has turned her musical attentions towards secular music instead. It flies in the face of her long-held belief that her talents as a singer and musician should always be used in praise and service to God, but she harbors any remaining hesitation, you never hear it during her new single “Fever”. It is her self-penned debut, as well, and she works with producer Jesse Field to craft an impressive pop listening experience that nonetheless makes a substantive lyrical and musical statement about human relationships.
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It isn’t to do so. The history of popular music, relatively short when you compare it to forms such as classical music, is nonetheless full to bursting with tracks about romantic chagrin under a trillion different disguises. Lost love, love deferred, love at long last, love in a flash, and the scores of variations therein have fueled many iconic musical moments over the last seventy-plus years. Melanie Rogers’ “Fever” joins their ranks but demonstrates strong suits separating it from the pack. Her vocal treatment alone is enough to distinguish her work from the comparatively by the numbers approaches lesser talents to adopt.
She brings a rough-hewn soul and abundant finesse to her performance. It is more than a little inspiring to hear how she easily transitions from the more stylized portions of the track into passages demanding raw power. It is seamless and, more importantly, feels natural without any apparent effort. Her phrasing demonstrates similar confidence. There’s never any hesitation audible in the way she invokes the downward spiral of a once fiery relationship flaming out in disappointment.
The track picks up extra emphasis thanks to the cracking percussion and the melodic lines generated from the song’s guitar work threads a virtual second “voice” bringing the cut to life. “Fever” simmers throughout but only comes to a boil with its chorus, but Rogers and her listeners alike derive much more satisfaction from keeping the tension high rather than resolving it in any major way.
She writes some first-rate lyrics for the track. The key to their success, however, doesn’t lie with dense content, rife with imagery, but instead from their withering honesty. She describes her relationship disappointments with sharp clarity in language anyone will grasp, and the individual lines pack an underrated percussive flavor. It’s a quality Rogers takes full advantage of with her vocals and shows her attention to detail.
You cannot help but come away from “Fever” convinced that Melanie Rogers is following the path she is meant for. That is ultimately for her to decide, of course, but there’s a reason why she has reached a crossroads with her religious faith when she has, and she has responded to the moment with a full-on vocal tour de force. Her mesmerizing delivery is attractive enough to invite you back again and again without exhausting its appeal. She possesses transformative singing talents with staying power.
Jodi Marxbury