LISA GERMANO : “Geek The Girl” (4AD)

This is the third offering from Boston’s Lisa Germano, following on from 1991’s On The Way Down From The Moon Palace and this year’s Happiness and as such does not represent a radical departure from the wistful, sanguine tones that embellished her last album.

If anything, it is even more downbeat. Songs like ‘Trouble’ with its direct declaration of fear and self-loathing brings to mind the whole Kurt Cobain debacle and therefore jars a little : “I’m frightened by the way I feel/And as I act, I hate myself.”

Her softly-spoken almost whispered vocals are seductive in the extreme and help conjure up a laidback, leisurely mood throughout, which is part of the reason that such paeans to intense, emotional suffering are not always that convincing. I find it hard to believe that someone whose voice can only be described as aural sex has really endured the pain about which she sings in the songs.

At other times, the songs come across as throwaway meditations that she just happened to scribble on the bus to pass the time, as with the title track : “I always liked rock ‘ n ‘ roll/ It always moved me/ I’d like it more if I dance / Yeah sure, I’m not too cool”. (‘Geek The Girl’).

However, songs like ‘Of Love And Colours’ and ‘My Secret Reason’ are more successful and you get the feeling that this is one of those slow-burning albums that gradually creeps up on you unsuspectingly. As I write, however, it doesn’t quite measure up to the unrivalled standard of excellence that is the hallmark of 4AD, a label which has, over the last 14 years, been home to some of the best music in rock.

• Nicholas Kelly