By GRAHAM REID
(Herald rating: * * * )
Phillips' Cruel Inventions breakthrough album a decade ago heralded a gifted singer-songwriter with a downbeat style who made a kind of acoustic, psychedelic chamber music. Her last album, the confusing Omnipop of five years ago, alienated many of her following — but
on this typically short album she's back on form with a collection of lean songs, which can have a melodic charm similar to Neil Finn's best work.
Her cohorts — sometime-Tom Waits/Elvis Costello guitarist Marc Ribot, arranger Van Dyke Parks and trad-country singer Gillian Welch — give an indication to the musical angularity on display.
How to Dream is a charmingly simple melody and there's folk-meets-pop feel throughout, as well as snaky cabaret noir in Edge of the World and Say What You Mean. Some of this sounds undernourished however: Taking Pictures is slight, with the cliched refrain "nostalgia isn't what it used to be" and instrumental Is That Your Zebra? is positively anorexic.
So, slightly uneven but more consistent than its predecessor, and a useful entry point into a distinctive career.
Label: Nonesuch/Warners
