New Release Review of Vanessa Carlton's Heroes & Thieves

Vanessa Carlton is best known for her song "Thousand Miles" while singing with a piano on the streets. Her career has never been extraordinary in terms of commercial success, but her artistry shows no mercy for those who even try to tell her what she should sing.

She is back with a new release called Heroes & Thieves, out October 9th, that shows a more mature Vanessa. Her music is honest and heartfelt, something modern music has lost over the past couple years. Vanessa has been laying low, touring with Stevie Nicks and spending time to write this record. She doesn't care to compromise herself by dressing slutty and grabbing the hottest set of backup dancers to reinforce her musical talent, Vanessa understands the meaning of art.

The well-thought record starts off with the current single "Nolita Fairytale." The song is just that. Vanessa has had some downtime to be herself and do what she loves most in Nolita, make music. She sings "Take away my record deal/ The one I don't need and/ Spent the last two years getting through what's real/ Now I can see so clear/ I hope you feel just like I feel/ I found some kind of fairytale." The playful piano tune gives us an expectation for the rest of the record lyrically as she is nothing but open about her thoughts.

The next track "Hands On Me" opens her heart about a crush as she says all the constellations shine on them and asks to put his hands on her if he doesn't believe. Vanessa found her crush in a strange place that makes for a perfect movie plot, the video exchange as she calls it.

Vanessa brings an interesting guest on this record, Stevie Nicks makes her appearance on "The One." Their voices don't exactly harmonize together, but give the song a flavor unmatchable by another artist. Here she confesses her love for a boy who won't admit things could work. She's known him for a long time, and they go on with their lives but he can't bring himself to tell her she's the one. It's a simple feeling of summer love as she changes the chorus for the end of the song "I feel the time pass away/ But in my songs you'll always stay/ I don't need you to tell me I'm the one/ You'll never know I was the one."