Timbre

This is actually the Manhattan-raised Sophie B Hawkins’ follow-up to two successive gold albums, but some folks round these parts may only know her from the catchy ‘Lose Your Way’, included here, as heard on the Dawson’s Creek compilation.

Timbre generally offers a finely balanced blend of electric and acoustic instruments, mostly used with restraint on a dozen originals which somehow rarely seem to convey the depths of profundity Hawkins herself claims for them. Whatever stories they purport to tell must have been lost in translation from page to disc. Yet her voice is always dark and lived-in and it alone tells a better story than much of her material.

For example, ‘No Connection’ is a relatively tame, moderately-paced ballad that builds to a fairly predictable climax then fades, first from your hi-fi and almost as quickly from your memory. ‘Your Tongue Like The Sun In My Mouth’ and ‘The One You Have Not Seen’ both unnecessarily build to clumping big rock-outs that could have rolled off the Jim Steinman production line.

‘32 Lines’ brings echoes of PJ Harvey, its pleading lyrics and breathy vocals decorated with primal sounds and strident strings. Hawkins herself adds some jazz-hued piano to ‘Bear The Weight Of Me’ to underpin the song’s plea for acceptance, while some fetching tribal chanting adds a touch of the Boris Karlof’s to the atmospheric ‘Darkest Childe’.

Big drums emphasise the gutsiness in ‘Mmmm My Best Friend’ which has a vocal that recalls Sheryl Crow at times, and the partly-autobiographical ‘Help Me Breathe’ has a fine string arrangement which adds a neat touch of menace.

Approached without great expectations, Timbre is an interesting, albeit underwhelming, musical experience. Kevin Killen’s engineering skills bring a clarity and spaciousness to the production, but you can’t help feeling that a little less self-absorption from Sophie B wouldn’t go amiss.