I bought this cd today. It is by Lhasa de Sela, who is a Mexican-American. The reason I mention this is because her 12 songs are sung in English, Spanish, or French. I read about her in an article in the Trib and bought the cd for Diane but it ended up costing me an ass load so I just burned her a copy :) and I know she won't mind receiving it plus the original jewel case minus the slip cover!! I got her other pretty things today anyway.
Anyway, so far it's not so bad at all. Berto would absolutely love it. Too bad I haven't talked to him since New Years. I only listened to the first 30 seconds or so of every song. The article said it's a mix of Billie Holliday, Tom Waits, and Radiohead. What I did notice is that although her voice is definitely the most prominent feature of the songs (I hope this statement makes sense), each song sounds very different. A lot of the Spanish-sung songs sound more, oh crap, a word I can't spell, acquostic, while the French-sung songs sound French. With accordians or something? And some songs have a lot of computerized sounds like newer Radiohead. So it's very interesting and soothing. Her voice is very deep, thick, heavy, diaphramic, you know? Very alto, which I love. I'll let you know about the lyrics once I listen more carefully. And if I feel like writing about it. Ok good bye. Geeze.