*** M2M

SHADES OF PURPLE

(Atlantic)

Norway's M2M are what might happen if Ani DiFranco had two teenage sisters who wanted to follow in the righteous babe's footsteps but managed to get her sound delightfully wrong, winding up instead with a tough yet confessional folk pop that wasn't out of place on the Pokémon soundtrack. Shades of Purple features 15-year-old Marion Raven and her 16-year-old school chum Marit Larsen writing their own songs in a powerful and direct take-no-bullshit plainspeech and performing them with acoustic guitar-based arrangements. Yes, they're a teen duo, and the production is in the pure-pop vein of DeBarge or Josie & the Pussycats; the result overlays authentic emotions with a shamelessly commercial sheen. All these gals are trying to do is negotiate that awkward high-school zone where the girls have matured faster than the boys -- hard not to be taken in by that, and by the catch in Raven's sweet pubescent soprano.

-- Kevin John

(M2M open for Hanson this Thursday, September 21, at the Orpheum. Call 423-NEXT.)