Extra Virgin
There are all the standard trip-hop ingredients--two guys who could probably stand to get out of the studio a little more often, lots of keyboards, drum machines, and samples. And there's a female singer, who's been compared to Sade--rather unfairly, since Ruth-Ann can manage more than a monotone and still be sultry. But there's also guitar and--wait for it--real strings. And, um, songs. Granted, they're not your conventional verse-chorus-verse, but like an insect bite, they get under your skin until you're scratching away and can't ignore them.--Chris Nickson