After Dutch singer/songwriter
Jana Mila
made her recording debut in 2022 with a spare alt-country single, "When Times Get Rough," that prompted millions of listens on streaming platforms, she went straight to work on her full-length debut. Recorded in Nashville with guitarist
Todd Lombardo
(
Kacey Musgraves
,
Randy Travis
Elle King
),
Chameleon
fleshes out and urbanizes her sound into something more adult alternative-oriented but still warmly organic.
Mila
brings to mind artists like
Musgraves
and especially
Madison Cunningham
on particularly tuneful entries like "I Wasn't Gonna" and "Somebody New," a song that, like much of the album, balances compassion and awareness. Its lively, full-band arrangement and light synth accents enliven her otherwise pastoral sound. She also includes a couple subtly countrified selections in "Let Me In," where she allows a touch of drawl into her delivery, and opening song "Like Only Lovers Could," a richly harmonized vocal track accompanied mainly by fingerstyle guitar and minimal cello and electronics. Later, "Rosie" is a strings-augmented singer/songwriter ballad about a household member who, in the tradition of
the Beatles
' "She's Leaving Home," just up and leaves ("She didn't even leave a note/Before she took the train"). Every slight style variation here not only falls within a limited palette and tone range but is similarly charming, no small thanks to
's knack for beguiling melodies. Adding another level of cohesion, the idea for
's title track came from the songwriter noticing that a friend would often adapt to please others; when
noticed this tendency in herself, the concept took on a broader application that, while multifaceted, helps infuse the album with poignancy. When
's longest and most suspenseful track, sparse closer "The City," repeatedly returns amid philosophical reflections to the couplet "But the city saves a tale/About everyone," it's a finishing stroke on a rewarding debut. ~ Marcy Donelson