Julia Michaels - Not in Chronological Order review | Alexis Petridis's album of the week

The Guardian 0

(Republic)
She’s had billion-streaming hits and written songs with everyone from Dua Lipa to Linkin Park – but Michaels’ pedigree doesn’t translate into an indelible pop personality

The world of the songwriter for hire is filled with ex-performers: former pop stars, indie rockers and – in the case of Max Martin – glam metal frontmen who slipped gratefully into the background when success, or their desire to be in the spotlight, faded. The sheer number of them suggests it’s a relatively straightforward transition to make. But there’s a distinct lack of traffic in the opposite direction, suggesting the journey from the backroom to the centre of attention is more vexing.

The career of Julia Michaels is a case in point. In 2017, she looked remarkably like a pop phenomenon in waiting, having served an extraordinary apprenticeship as a songwriter for hire. By the age of 24, she had co-authored 10 platinum singles – among them Justin Bieber’s 10m-selling Sorry, Ed Sheeran’s Dive and a string of hits for Selena Gomez – establishing herself as the kind of writer who could flit with ease between teen pop artists, R&B singers, country stars, dance producers requiring a vocal melody and even metal bands whose material needed a polish: she is the thread that improbably links Rita Ora to Linkin Park.