It was simply a matter of time before pop-music quilldriver
Michelle Lewis
wrote so many good songs she'd have to just put out her own album, and that she did.
Little Leviathan
sounds as though she enjoyed herself doing it, too, although the travails of her reflective, singing self indicate rougher emotional roads than you'd expect from a potentially garden-variety streetpop star. Replete with shades of
Rickie Lee Jones
and
Joan Osborne
,
Michelle
has a savvy, unapologetic attitude and ultimately talkative -- and sure, essentially melodic -- delivery, as well as an assured acoustic guitar style.
Leviathan
gently experiments with literature, too, as her lyrics are dense, even obscure with poetry, in evidence on the emotive
"Liquid Heart"
and the alluring but baffling just-post-teen-lovers' ballad
"Loaded."
There is a narrative thread throughout the songs, and although the link is not clear, there are recognizable and recurring characters and a well-crafted sense of place, emerging from a kind of urban emotional nexus presumed to be the singing central "character,"
herself. The clearest songs are also the best-performed: the emerging sensibility of
"Dig Me Out"
genuinely gets stronger as it gets louder (not always the case), and
"Nowhere and Everywhere"
is a good dizzy downtown-New York girlie tune with plenty of guitar camaraderie.
has lots of help on
whether she needed it or not, produced by
Geraldine Fibbers
Soul Coughing's
pulse-fingering
Steve Fisk
, and backed by
Lounge Lizards
Tony Scherr
Keith Golden
. Incalculable influences round out the autobiographical essence of this album, as
Michelle's
mom,
Annette
, was a longtime session singer for radio and TV jingles, and her big-band horn player dad
Morty Bennett
contributed the venerated sax solo on
Lou Reed's
"Walk on the Wild Side."
validates a young singer/songwriter who has already made her mark by penning hits for Australia's
Deni Hines
the Todd Terry Project
Camille
Amy Grant
. A solid and memorable debut, if a smidge wordy. ~ Becky Byrkit