Whiskey Tango Ghosts

More sedate than Beautysleep, this has the same ethereal qualities but with sparser surroundings. She's been moving further away from the rock guitar chick thing since she went solo, and Whiskey Tango Ghosts brings her to a very traditional female singer/songwriter place. This is Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, and Emmylou Harris with a post 90's isolationism coloring their point of view. The songs are smart and introspective and self critical as well as reaffirming. She avoids the sort of lushness of instrumentation that she used to hide what she perceived to be shortcomings in her songwriting. Most songs are piano/vocal or acoustic guitar/bass/percussion/vocal sets which clearly show that there are no shortcomings.

Hot spots: Every Devil, My Life As A Ghost, The Center, Whiskey Tango, Fallout.