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Tami René's "Take It Back", the follow-up to her 2009 "Ghost Town" debut, shows Tami's development as a singer/songwriter with expanding musical styles and lyrics that explore elements inherent within the human experience. Tami favors no particular musical genre, she borrows elements from pop, rock, jazz and country. With "Take It Back" she incorporates blues influences into her musical palette. Listen to the samples, they are good representations of each song. I find two themes recurring throughout this album: romance, ("Something", "Stories after Dark", "Anytime", "Holiday in You") and maintaining optimism in the face of difficulties ("Take it Back", "My Way Back Home", "Strangers to Me", "You've Met Heartache", "Working Mom", "Satan's Mistress".)Tami collaborated with Randy Thorderson, the album's arranger and producer, to build arrangements that strengthen each song's idea. Randy, an accomplished jazz guitarist and keyboardist in his own right, constructs arrangements that complement but don't overpower. "Working Mom" and "Stories after Dark" are good examples of his ability to enhance a song's theme without distracting from its message.Here is my brief take on each song.SomethingThe album opens with this upbeat track celebrating the elation that one gets from being in love. This song is a good example of Tami's pop/jazz musical style.Take It BackThe title track is a blues-styled piece with Tami confronting forces that might have previously manipulated her and asserting that her life is indeed her own. She expresses neither regret nor bitterness, but demonstrates confidence and resolve.The Hell Is Going OnA surprising work in which Tami, who is generally apolitical in her musical expressions, criticizes social and political forces in our economic environment, taking particular aim at banking interests. Musically the song is one of the most dynamic on the album with gentle verses and a passionate refrain.My Way Back HomeA soft, pensive piece with which Tami laments the entropy that life may bring and pleads for things warmer and simpler. The song's chord progression, particularly during the chorus, is complex but subtle within the gentle arrangement.Strangers to MeAn introspective call to rid one's self of detrimental feelings. Tami's sister, Carey Lynne Belcher, wrote the lyrics in this collaboration. I find its message similar to John Lennon's "Imagine" with its pleas for peace and civility among human beings. However claiming that this song is another "Imagine" does both songs injustice. "Imagine" addresses societal issues, expresses John's hopes for world peace, and offers political and social solutions that might help us achieve this. In comparison, "Strangers to Me" addresses individuals, suggesting how one might expel one's own negative energy to achieve personal peace and benevolence. Putting the lyrical analysis aside, it's a beautiful and powerful song. When Tami performs it, it tends to be an audience favorite.You've Met HeartacheAn energetic track with a catchy rhythm that declares how wonderful life can be for one who has faced pain and, well, heartache. Admittedly, offering simplistic cheerfulness to counter deep, complex and all-too-real pain often is a formula for disaster. In doing so one often misunderstands, downplays - and thereby unintentionally mocks - personal, concrete, life-defining difficulties that real people experience in their lives. This song avoids these traps as Tami wrote and performs it in emphatic celebration of specific people, to whom she is close, that have confronted life's challenges undefeated.Stories after DarkSpeaks of building the personal connections that become a foundation for deep love. Randy's subtle arrangement makes this piece simple but intense, allowing the music to focus on the emotion that is this song. A less careful arrangement could easily leave it sappy, causing many male listeners to instinctively react "Uh-huh dear, I'm trying to sleep." This song escapes such triteness and presents a distinctly feminine portrayal of integrated love, expressing such feelings in a gentle manner that can strengthen empathy to the female perspective.AnytimeAn light upbeat pop tune celebrating love. This pleasant song is catchy, has wide appeal, and would play well on popular media.Missing YouWith this bluesy yet lively track Tami reminisces about her mother. I particularly like that it addresses various emotions that accompany such reflections: love, nostalgia, regret, vulnerability, weakness; while maintaining an overall feel of fondness and warmth.Working MomA beautiful piece with which Tami speaks for mothers who face the challenge of balancing a profession and raising children. This song is powerful and touching, making it one of my favorites. While it expresses the pain, frustration and sacrifice that this lifestyle carries, it does not ask for the listeners' pity. Instead, it offers homage to working mothers' strength and determination.Holiday in YouIn this reggae influenced piece, Tami imagines escaping the mundane in favor of a simple but exotic getaway that is intensified by being with the one she loves.Satan's MistressThis rock/jazz tune might work as a modern theatrical interpretation of a 1920's jazz piece. (If that leaves you puzzled, listen to the sample.) Tami often is coy in discussing specific interpretations of the track's metaphors - preferring that the listener apply them to circumstances to which he or she can personally relate. However, speaking generally, it deals with harm that one brings to oneself, perhaps unwittingly. Surprisingly the energetic arrangement does not detract from track's sober theme, but perhaps makes it palatable to one for whom this song might apply. The bridge in particular is a fine example of Tami's artistry and humanity. In it she drops (but still alludes to) her metaphors and speaks directly to the song's suffering protagonist, expressing pure compassion regardless of one's terrible circumstances. Should I ever in my life require an intervention, if you could convince me that you carry this quality of kindness, I could open myself to your help.My favorite songs tend to be the ones where music and lyric combine to deliver an emotional statement that in some way resonated with me or otherwise affected my empathy. And several of these songs do this for me, even after hearing them multiple times. For me, these include "My Way Back Home", "Strangers to Me", "Stories after Dark" and "Working Mom".