America 3 - Revenge...

Few artists have had such a 'rock 'n' roll' ride as Vanessa Carlton. Her 2002 début 'Be Not Nobody', which provided the international hit single A Thousand Miles, saw her hailed as one of the greatest US female artists of all time. The follow-up album, also released by A&M, was 'Harmonium' (2004) - which, although it was a critical success and without doubt a huge progression musically, was met with disappointing sales. Indeed it was not even properly released in the UK for at least twelve months after it was released in North America - I bought my copy as soon as it was released and that had to come from Canada.
This unfortunately coincided with the "great panic" that engulfed the major labels when they suddenly realised digital downloads were really here to stay. The label's instincts were wrong - rather than sticking with those artists with the potential to develop careers they ditched their best up-and-coming artists in favour of old-timers.

Vanessa Carlton was a big-time loser here but she' s back, probably bruised, battered and better than ever, in 2007 and the first single to be taken from her forthcoming third album, 'Heroes & Thieves', is Nolita Fairytale and there is no doubt whatsoever what it is about...

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The signature song 'A Thousand Miles', taken from her first album, also featured prominently in the 2004 film 'White Chicks' and only enhanced her reputation as the definitive white New Yorker (ballet dancer, pianist and more recently singer-songwriter) that she is, or arguably was until she moved to San Francisco.
Nolita Fairytale is about being betrayed by A&M and what happened thereafter.

Fast-forward to 2007 and her third album is to be released by 'The Inc.', formerly 'The Murder Inc.'; the label is run by Irv Gotti and hip-hop is his history - think Ja Rule and Ashanti both of whom he discovered - so this might just seem a peculiar signing.
It is probably not as strange as it seems and neither is there anything whatsoever to suggest that Vanessa Carlton has undergone a change of musical direction either.