After the release of 2007’s In the Ballroom, both Keith Saunders and Meredith DiMenna of Saint Bernadette started to hear voices.Newly joined in the bonds of Holy Matrimony, ending a 7-year stint of living in sin, Meredith and Keith interpreted the sudden appearance of the voices as a sign from the High Holy Power of Music and Creativity. I Wanna Tell You Something was born.Where In the Ballroom featured anthems for ethical sluts, Daddy’s girls, and hookers with hearts of gold, I Wanna Tell Y...
After the release of 2007’s In the Ballroom, both Keith Saunders and Meredith DiMenna of Saint Bernadette started to hear voices.Newly joined in the bonds of Holy Matrimony, ending a 7-year stint of living in sin, Meredith and Keith interpreted the sudden appearance of the voices as a sign from the High Holy Power of Music and Creativity. I Wanna Tell You Something was born.Where In the Ballroom featured anthems for ethical sluts, Daddy’s girls, and hookers with hearts of gold, I Wanna Tell You Something pays homage to an illusory, impossible love affair. Featuring sing along choruses, twisted circus melodies, and one crushing ballad, the EP’s five songs detail a journey of longing through temptation, despair, whimsy, audacity, and vulnerability. Kick off track “In Between” is an unspoken come-on, while follow up “Love is a Stranger” suffers the regret that follows the unsaid. Sweet girl group harmonies ornament “One in a Million”, until barn burner, “Hard to Believe” delivers a sonic slap to the face and a shot of tequila. The title track “I Wanna Tell You Something”, a last minute inspiration, is a sweet invitation to stay up all night.I Wanna Tell You Something, moves past the retro quality of In the Ballroom and its comparisons to Shirley Bassey, Peggy Lee, and Billie Holliday and into the modern territory of the Deal sisters and KT Tunstall.“There are times when we accidentally might sound like Kelly Clarkson,” says Meredith. “Not true,” says Keith. “You look like Kelly Clarkson. You know, kinda farm fed.” In truth, the album owes little to the American Idol, but might recall the gymnastic nature of her pipes and some selective Yeah Yeah Yeahs-style guitars. How can a band be channeling both pop princesses and post punk rock? “For the most part, I’m just singing as hard as I can,” says Meredith. “I ain’t ashamed.”Just as Bernadette changed the future of her hometown of Lourdes forever with her unexplained visions, Saint Bernadette, the rock band, is poised to put their hometown, in the ill-considered state of Connecticut, on the indie music map. The album was recorded again in Bridgeport, with producer Chris Sanchez (The Flesh, Stylofone) at his studio, Sanchez Dos. It was further was co-produced and mixed by Keith at his home studio, Running Water Labs.Running in tandem with side project, The Priestess and The Fool, featuring duets performed by Meredith and label mate, Brian Grosz, and skillfully produced by Keith, Saint Bernadette’s 2008 output is truly miraculous.To paraphrase the 1943 movie The Song of Bernadette: “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.”
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