Shawn Colvin
On her first album of original songs since 1992's Fat City, this feisty folkie comes out swinging with a restless, occasionally angry and sometimes bittersweet set. For Colvin, Repairs is a nice rebound after her tepid recording of cover tunes two years ago. Colvin's sound has evolved from the quiet power of her sparkling, Grammy-winning 1989 major-label debut, Steady On. This more brawny, rootsy recording opens with "Sunny Came Home," in which the narrator imagines setting fire to a bundle of bad memories, consisting mainly of (what else?) lousy romances: "Count the years, you always knew it/ Strike a match, go on and do it." Colvin displays her gift for spinning delicious melodies out of empty air on the lush "You and the Mona Lisa." The stunner, though, comes with the subdued acoustic beauty of "Wichita Skyline," a lonesome traveling ode in which the breathless plaintiveness of her voice soars above a simple guitar strum and John Leventhal's twangy lead guitar lines. Even amid the swelling ranks of female artists in pop, Colvin is a vibrant original. (Columbia)
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