JONATHA BROOKE - Back In The Circus (Universal)

I'm largely in the dark on certain parishes of contemporary singer-songwriter music. Are the vocal mannerisms that I think of as purely Alanis Morrisette's fault really hers, or do they come from a long and storied tradition? Because they sure sound out of place here.

Brooke's never displayed much of a sense of humor, even when cheerful or whimsical, so it would be asking too much for her un-folk appropriations on this record to be done with the giddy, anarchic zeal of a mash-up bootlegger or even, more plausibly, that of Mandy Moore's covers album. It has to suffice, therefore, that they more or less work; the Radiohead click-buzz of "Sleeping With The Light On" bodes incredibly well for Brooke's prospects if she were to wholeheartedly pursue that kind of thing, and the covers (James Taylor, Beach Boys, Alan Parsons) would be the record's 3rd, 4th and 5th best songs were they not marred by those mannerisms I was asking about...

SCISSOR SISTERS - Scissor Sisters (Universal)

I'm truly impressed at how many of the musicians I dislike this reminded me of at different times.

THE DECEMBERISTS - The Tain EP (Acuarela)

Impressive! Veers into early Tindersticks territory in spots (unexpected, but not, in retrospect, strange). What they need right now is not so much to grow as to establish which parts of what they've already done they intend to preserve and which parts were passing fancies.

The balance struck between earlier preciousness and earlier subtlety is expressed well in the choice to credit one member with both "tin toys" and "the drums". Not "drums", "the drums".