Listening Cap
Tsunami's Jenny Toomey has one of the most expressive voices you are ever likely to wrap an ear around. She has the wistful grace of a chanteuse and the raw power to push a song through it's artistic comfort zone into someplace heartbreakingly genuine. Liquorice is a side project for Toomey--she also records with Mark Robinson of Unrest under the name Grenadine--and one that is well-suited to her gifts. Dan Littleton and Trey Many contribute instrumental and vocal support, yetListening Capsounds largely like Toomey's solo album. The songs are spare and uncomplicated with the spotlight trained unflinchingly on her vocal styling. As such, this record works in a big way. The name of this outfit offers a clue to its content. The songs drip with sweet, sad remembrances of bygone summer days, refracted through an older, slightly more cynical perspective. "Keeping the Weekend Free" simmers with "should-have's" and "might-have-been's" as Toomey effortlessly unites the pain of a particular time and her more detached amusement now as she recounts the hours wasted on a long-distance relationship--"You're seven digits away/why raise a fist, when you can't lift a finger." On "Jill of All Trades," Toomey moves into a very different arena with a Tori Amos/VH-1 adult contemporary piano ballad, that comes across plaintive and real rather than melodramatic. She even sounds sassy and confident on the B-52s-like, new wave throwaway "Blew It," as her vocal gusto supplies needed ballast to a lightweight tune. Liquorice gives Jenny Toomey a chance to try on some wildly different costumes, and she looks stunning in all of them.--John Chandler