Purge
Sonically and image-wise, singer-songwriter Bif Naked has always wanted it both ways. On the one hand, she's the street-smart, seriously inked, no-nonsense belter railing against the evil doings of guys while raunchy electric guitars howl behind her. But on the other, Naked wants you to see her vulnerable, little-girl side, so much so that her albums invariably contain a weepy and, more often than not, middling ballad. If the saucy/sweet combination makes Naked a titillating, Freudian-type interview subject, the polarity is less successful musically. On the bluntly titledPurge(get it?), Naked swings from the truly inane ("I thought it was my candy, but I was choking on the truth" in the song of the same name), to weary Gloria Gaynor-style girl power in "I Love Myself Today" (which appears twice, as an album cut and as a remixed unlisted cut). Naked's reach is admirable--actually, given the chaotic breadth of material here, it's audible--and though she happens upon real sentiment in the solemn and understated "Stolen Sidewalk" and hits two homeruns with the bouncy pure-pop of "You Are the Master" and the ska-scorched "Regular Guy," too much ofPurgesounds like a singer trying to find her niche. By this point in her career, that shouldn't be this much of a stretch.--Kim Hughes