Marti Jones
Jones seems to be establishing a solid outpost somewhere in the territory staked out by the more accessible members of the pop avant garde. On her second solo album she mixes and matches material by such people as Marshall Crenshaw (Whenever You're on My Mind), David Bowie (the difficult Soul Love), Elvis Costello (Just a Memory) and Richard Barone of the Bongos (Foolish Lies). Crenshaw and his brother Robert, T-Bone Burnett and various members of the Joe Jackson band back her up. Jones's voice is on the delicate side, but it's hardly lacking in texture. (The worst to be said about her is that she slurs a word once in a while.) She can go from the bouncy, almost rockabilly sound of Dwight Twilley's Chance of a Lifetime to Liam Sternberg's Crusher ("A raging thirst/ And a checkered past/ Gonna get to you"), which achieves a remarkable sound that's like a cross between a country ballad and something out of New Delhi. Versatility is not necessarily its own reward but in Jones's case it's a real virtue. (A&M)
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