Margaret Berger's debut, released five months after she placed second in the 2004 #Norwegian Idol series, is -- as befits its title -- something of a stylistic shape-shifter. Its ten tracks seem to snatch indiscriminately from rock, dance, RB, and electro, though the cumulative effect is less of a hodgepodge than a harmonious cohabitation of electronic beats and rock guitars, within a plush, polished pop context, in a manner that hasn't been particularly prevalent (in mainstream music anyway) since the '80s. As a showcase for the 19-year-old Berger's remarkably rich, mature voice, it's impressive and charismatic; as a collection of pop songs it's relatively undistinguished, although nothing here truly qualifies as filler. Even the numbers that fall flat -- the slow, bizarrely menacing electro/jazz protest song Elephant, for instance -- have some intriguing ideas behind them. Much of the material has a dark, slightly forbidding cast that stands in contrast to your typical Scandinavian teen pop fare, but it proves well-suited to the RB inflections Berger evinces on tracks like the slinky, disconcerting Main Offender and the twitchy, twangy Lifetime Guarantee (which comes on like a digital update of a '60s spy movie theme.) Only rarely, though, does Chameleon hint at the sweetness -- or the brilliance -- that Berger would demonstrate on her stunning sophomore set, Pretty Scary Silver Fairy -- and never more markedly than on the gently nostalgic Both Sides, whose lovely, lilting melody, swathed in acoustic guitar, bells, and piano, offers a simple warmth that cuts through the muddled menace, sonic trickery, and dance-pop drama of the rest of the album like a sunbeam through mist. ~ K. Ross Hoffman, Rovi

1		Chameleon
2		Lifetime Guarantee
3		Mind Game
4		Simple Mind
5		Both Sides
6		This Is Perfect
7		Elephant
8		Pleasure
9		Main Offender
10		Still

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