Is it country? Is it pop? Is it a marching band fronted by a musical theatre aficionado? That last one might be the most applicable in the case of Jonatha Brooke, whose EP cover features her with a marching drum strapped to her naked body.
Jonatha Brooke is anything but a newcomer. She has a career spanning over two decades with more than ten album releases. Following writing credits for both Disney films and Katy Perry, Brooke decided to open her own independent label Bad Dog Records in 1999 where she could release her own music on her own terms.
‘Imposter’ is a song written for Brooke’s NYC Song Club, where she had promised to deliver a new song every two weeks. It’s a frank and honest tune about self-criticism with a unique accompaniment of strings, sparse percussion and brass. The ever-present snare rolls in the chorus give the song a marching band feel, and we can imagine Brooke parading naked and vulnerable through town streets as she sings.
No stranger to theatrics, Brooke’s one-woman play ‘My Mother Has Four Noses’ is a tragicomedy about looking after her mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s. Brooke takes her knowledge and frankness about the human condition and translates it into a song which we can all relate to – the all-too-real conundrum of being your own worst critic.