On her third Sub Pop full-length, this Seattle songwriter/vocalist approaches the sometimes difficult but universal topics of introspection, identity, and love with bravery, honesty, and above all, stunning beauty. "If Songs..." marks the first time she's collaborated with musicians outside her circle of family and friends, this time working with Liz Phair guitarist Dino Meneghin, accomplished film soundtrack string arranger Josh Myers, and a duet with Ed Harcourt on the classic "Let It Be Me". - Amazon
The album was self-produced and primarily recorded on her Fairlight keyboard. Bush weaves intricate tapestries of sound and imagery with songs that span the range of all emotion, from the most intimate to the most frightening. - Amazon.com
Cole's self-produced 1996 breakthrough, finds her investing her songs with outsized emotions, framed by consistently inventive arrangements built around Cole's keyboards, and reaching a zeitgeist-piercing intensity on "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" and "I Don't Want to Wait," making Cole seem very much like Fiona Apple's older, slightly less cracked sister. --Sam Sutherland
Imogen Heap is an enormously gifted singer, songwriter, producer, keyboardist, and programmer. She does it all here on her second solo CD which showcases her remarkable talents. The stunning track 'Hide and Seek' offers the electronic equivalent of a cappella, with only Imogen's expressive voice heard via vocoder -- an early favorite that shot right to #1 on iTunes Electronic Chart in June 2005. The song was also featured on the season finale of THE O.C., and earlier in the season, THE O.C. previewed another track from this album called 'Goodnight and Go', a bittersweet ballad about the secret admiring of a neighbor. Comparison's have been made to Bjork, Alanis Morrisette, Joni Mitchell and Annie Lennox, among others, but no one can hold a candle to Imogen Heap. - Amazon.com
Requiem, his first composition written without being commissioned, is a convincing affirmation of Christian doctrine on death and eternal life. It is also a substantial and sincere work that strives to be widely appealing while preserving a spiritual context centered on themes of light and consolation. Highlights include "Out of the Deep," its modal tune and harmonies giving it the flavor of a spiritual, and the wonderfully gentle and restful 23rd Psalm. Rutter personalizes his Requiem by adding movements not traditionally part of the Requiem Mass--passages from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, for instance--and this proves to be an effective strategy. - amazon.com
Following in the footsteps of Sinéad O'Connor and Tori Amos, Paula Cole is an art-rock singer-songwriter who turns her personal wounds into songs full of facile psychologizing and strained allegory with overwrought, humorless music to match. Harbinger, the debut album from the Massachussetts native, is full of grievances against glamorous romantic rivals, patronizing men, insensitive high school classmates and cross-burning racists--all so broadly drawn that everyone can easily join in the complaint. --Geoffrey Himes
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