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Lucinda Williams' Amazon recommendation steered me toward this disc, and it makes me grateful for the wonders of the web--this is pop music with a fabulous edge (not unlike the best of Williams' work). Mooney is, first of all, a terrific singer; a low-key presentation with the chops to conjur up the jazz and r&b greats, but the style to hold them back for the right moments. She's also developing a unique voice as a songwriter. Some of these tunes may start out seeming ordinary, but they drift into wonderfully off-beat structures and progressions--without the listener being quite sure what happened. Her lyrics are top notch, too, slightly quirky, with a bull's-eye sense of image, such as "Somewhere there's a ball game on the radio," or "Imagine you're just going to the store/and instead you won't be back anymore."
All of that is great, but what is really impressive is the package that she produced to hold it all together. The presentation is generally fairly quiet and spare, with an emphasis on a dream-like movement through time--an almost-typical, somewhat country-influenced acoustic guitar/bass/drum blend nudged along (or perhaps floated along) by superb pedal steel, vibraphone, mandolin, and sometimes cello. It's a very original and intoxicating stirring of sounds, extremely well-recorded...audiophiles, take note.
This disc was released in 2004. I hope there's another on the way soon. Depth, originality, style, splendid execution...this is worth getting excited about.
