In these health-conscious times, it's tempting to distrust the sweet and pretty. But not everything that tastes good is bad for you. Bear that in mind as you listen to
Eddi Reader's latest solo album, on which she teams up with fellow British pop-folkie
Boo Hewerdine (who plays guitar, produces, and wrote half the songs) to deliver a luscious program of bittersweet lyrics couched in whipped-cream melodies and airy, largely acoustic production. "Kiteflyer's Hill" takes the threadbare conceit of doomed summer love and turns it into a melancholy but quietly joyful celebration of memory;
Reader's version of
Hewerdine's "Bell, Book and Candle" beats his own by a mile, primarily due to her gently virtuosic singing; "Follow My Tears" is a heartbreaking portrait of an aging emigrant remembering her good and decent husband and the home they reluctantly left in their youth. No fast songs here -- from beginning to end, this is music that will lull you into a blissful half-doze and mostly keep you there. But that doesn't mean it's boring any more than its sweetness means it's bad for you. ~ Rick Anderson