“I’m fine, but I’m not okay. I’m looking forward to looking back on these days.”
It’s a seventh night of Hanukkah miracle: Amanda Leigh “Mandy” Moore‘s 2007 fifth studio album and first foray into folk-pop – otherwise known as The Original Joanne™ – is finally available across all digital platforms.
The album went out of print in 2009, and was nowhere to be found on streaming or iTunes…until now.
Wild Hope, for those unfamiliar, was the This Is Us star’s official moment of Serious Singer-Songwriter Rebellion against her “Candy”-coated pop roots, co-crafted alongside The Weepies, John Alagia, Rachael Yamagata, Chantal Kreviazuk, Jason Mraz, Michelle Branch and Lori McKenna.
Mandy was very much Going Through It during the recording process for Wild Hope: she left her then-record label Sire, feeling constrained by the pop music industry and constant comparisons to Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and Christina Aguilera. She then signed with The Firm Music, writing moody indie MySpace-era music about self-doubt and heartbreak in the Catskill mountains following a break-up with Zach Braff and enduring a period of “feelings of sadness.”
Granted, the album didn’t quite register with the general public: it landed softly at No. 30 on the Billboard 200 – and its two singles, “Extraordinary” and “Nothing That You Are,” written with James Renald, who also wrote “Cry” – missed the Hot 100 entirely.
“I told them, ‘Guys, I’m not going to make that kind of pop record for you.’ I’m not expecting to sell a million records,” she told People in 2007.
A decade later, and Mandy’s indie opus is finally available to be heard once again – so start looking forward to looking back.
