Mirador
Check this record out if you're bored stiff with the bleak, gray sameness of Mazzy Star-style gothic pop folk. WhileGentle Creaturesmaintained a solemn tone throughout, Georgia singer Paula Fraser and band show far more pace, variety, and high, campy spirit here.  "An Awful Shade of Blue," for instance, is like Marty Robbins in a high noon shootout with Ennio Morricone and the Cowboy Junkies--which, happily, is as much fun in practice as theory. Chris Isaak should take notes from "Like a Ghost," a lonesome whistle haunts "A Place Where I Know," and there's a twangy surf feel to "There's Someone." Fun fun fun 'til daddy takes the hearse away.--Jeff Bateman