Marti Jones
Maybe somebody ought to invent a genre called Akron pop. It's certainly hard otherwise to categorize Jones, 26, except to say that she is an exciting singer, with a rich, finely tuned voice arid a sensibility (and sense of humor) to go with it. She's reminiscent at times of Annie Lennox and, at mellower moments, of Anne Murray. Her producer and main backup musician, Don Dixon, who co-produced two R.E.M. albums, has provided her with a lot of infectious, synthesized rhythms; yet there are cello and trombone solos and a string quartet too. The songs are by such people as Elvis Costello (The Element Within Her), Richard Barone of the Bongos, and Dixon. Jones is an Ohioan who has recently sung with a four-piece group called Color Me Gone (they are), and also hawked department store credit card applications. Confusing? Somehow, despite the disparate influences, the music doesn't sound at all jumbled. It's both danceable and eminently listenable, an appetizing introduction to a woman of considerable talent. (A & M)
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