Album Review: Delta Goodrem – Innocent Eyes: 10th Year Anniversary Acoustic Edition
2 min read
2013 marks the 10th anniversary of hit Australian artist Delta Goodrem’s debut album Innocent Eyes. Released in 2003, this fantastic album claims various records, including being the most successful Australian album of its generation, spending 29 weeks at number one on the ARIA charts (7.5 months), being certified 15 times platinum and producing five number one singles. This was quite a debut from Australian sweetheart Delta, who was only 18 years old at the time of release, as no other album by any other artist has sold more copies in Australia than Innocent Eyes since 2003.
It seemed as if everyone was listening to the CD, even myself who must have only been eight or nine years old. Even today I can remember every lyric from the first note, and it astonishes me how Goodrem’s music appealed to such a large demographic of people. I highly doubt that I understood any of the lyrics I belted out, but you don’t necessarily have to understand great music to appreciate it and this a testament to Delta’s work.
This special ten year anniversary album doesn’t attempt to re-sell you the same songs you already know and love; it offers you brand new, live acoustic recordings. Through these new recordings, Delta’s growth and maturity can be notably heard, especially through her vocals. Many of the songs are accompanied by just piano and guitar, often played by Goodrem herself, and she is occasionally joined by a choir.
The songs on the album sound the same but different; Delta experiments with different pitch and vocal tones throughout the album, and this is a nice touch that gives the tracks a sense of being new again. However, this is also the one small downfall of the Innocent Eyes: Ten Year Anniversary album. Some of the songs suffer from the curse of oversinging; not only is the pitch and melody adjusted, but several vocal techniques (such as runs) are added. These are nice occasionally, but come all too often in some songs and make the song sound far too different and almost unrecognisable from its original.
This is the issue with some of the album’s most popular songs, including Born To Try, Not Me, Not I and Predictable . Innocent Eyes has beautiful vocals, but the choir seems a like more of an intrusion than an advantage to the track. The highlights on this special anniversary album are Lost Without You and Butterfly, as these songs manage to find the right balance between the original and Delta’s vocal experimentation.
Despite this Delta Goodrem’s voice is as angelic and captivating as always, and it’s interesting to hear the difference in her vocals after 10 years. The Innocent Eyes: Ten Year Anniversary Acoustic Edition will enthrall fans who adored the original Innocent Eyes album and will leave them feeling nostalgic about the first time they fell in love with these songs.
