Leona Naess is good. Really good -- her talent is undeniable, her ear for a memorable melody is as sharp as it is sensitive, and her ability to eloquently deliver overly wordy lyrical sketches is almost uncanny. Unfortunately, her third album's polished glare is so bright that it's almost easier to skip over the disc entirely than risk staring too deeply into its core.
Unlike Leona Naess the musician, Leona Naess the album is nearly forgettable, such is the perfection of its production and cardboard cut-out lyrical and musical themes. That's not to say that anyone and everyone with a few too many tunes about lost love and mean-spirited ex-lovers should have their albums removed from the racks, but Leona Naess goes off the rails with tracks (and song titles) like "Don't Use My Broken Heart To Pick Up Other Girls". Somehow, though, Naess offers nuggets of hope with ingenious lines like "Don't use the records I played you / to seduce and reduce what remains."
At its best, the album breaks the stale singer-songwriter mould and rocks with different instrumentation and a playful mood. At its worst, it is completely disposable. Leona, please, keeping breaking the mould! The results are fantastic... and memorable.
