Music / Michelle Branch

Makin' Loud Music

Cause you're everywhere to me
And when I close my eyes it's you I see
You're everything I know that makes me believe
I'm not alone
I'm not alone

—"Everywhere"

Michelle Jacquet Desevren Branch (born July 2, 1983) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist, often cited as the Ur-Example of the "anti-Britney" movement in the early 2000s, in which female pop music took a decidedly less artificial turn towards auteurist adult contemporary. In the beginning of the decade, she released two top-selling albums, The Spirit Room and Hotel Paper, and was subsequently nominated for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2003. In 2005, she formed the country music duo The Wreckers with friend and fellow musician Jessica Harp, and produced the Grammy-nominated single "Leave the Pieces". The Wreckers disbanded in 2007 to pursue their respective solo careers. She has had several commercially successful songs, most notably winning a Grammy with Santana for "The Game of Love". After the release of West Coast Time stalled for unrevealed reasons, Branch changed record companies and eventually released Hopeless Romantic instead in 2017. In 2022, she would follo up with her next album, The Trouble With Fever.

Discography

• The Spirit Room (2001)
• Hotel Paper (2003)
• Stand Still, Look Pretty (2006) (as part of The Wreckers)
• Everything Comes and Goes (2010) (six song EP)
• Hopeless Romantic (2017)
• The Trouble With Fever (2022)

• West Coast Time (currently unreleased)

Tropes include:

• Back to Front: The music video for "Goodbye to You" is about Branch at the beach watching the fish go away, then her releasing the fish at the beach, then her driving toward the beach, etc. Believe it or not, the video's story is actually played in reverse; Branch has said that the format is supposed to be similar to the film Memento.
• Break-Up Song: "Are You Happy Now?" Most of the Hotel Paper album.
• Caught in the Rain: The video for "All You Wanted".
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The two worlds in the "Are You Happy Now" video: the blue side is crumbling and falling apart, the orange side is bright and still built up (Michelle looks miserable either way, though).
• Cover Version: Covered America's "A Horse With No Name" for the Bojack Horseman episode "The Old Sugarman Place".
• Eye Contact as Proof: In "Are You Happy Now?", she asks her ex to look her in the eye and tell her whether s/he is happy now.
• Genre Shift: From Pop to Country with The Wreckers...then back to Pop for West Coast Time (what we've heard of it, anyway). "Loud Music" is pretty much a full on rock song.
• Gratuitous French: "Till I Get Over You" has some gratuitous French in the chorus. It's coherent enough unless you read the album notes, which transcribe it wrong and then translate it wrong.
• Happily Married: Formerly. Was married to her bassist, Teddy Landau for over 10 years but they've now separated.
• Intercourse with You: "Lay Me Down" and "Spark".
• Love Nostalgia Song: "Summertime"
• May–December Romance: Married her bassist, Teddy Landau, when she was 20 and he was 39.
• Rescue Romance: "All You Wanted," although it seems to be more about rescuing the other person from their loneliness and grief rather than any physical danger.
  If you want to, I can save you
  I can take you away from here
  So lonely inside, so busy out there
  And all you wanted was somebody who cares
  Please can you tell me
  So I can finally see
  Where you go when you're gone
• Shout-Out: "Loud Music" has loads - Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, This is Spın̈al Tap, Jimi Hendrix and AC/DC.
• Storyboard Body: She has over 10 tattoos. Her wrists have "left" and "right" on them, her forearms have a pin up cowgirl and feather, and her back is a large piece with "Owen Isabelle" (her daughter) written along the bottom. She says she gets a tattoo for every important moment in her life.
• Title Drop: Every. Single. Song.
• Title Track: Every album except The Spirit Room.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to Vanessa Carlton's girly girl (she and Vanessa have often been mistaken for each other, due to their similar appearance and the fact that they were popular around the same time).
• Woman Scorned: "Are You Happy Now?".