Jane Siberry-Maria (jazzy-folk)

Jane Siberry has remained one of the most extreme acquired tastes in music ever since she emerged with the revenge fantasy "Mimi On The Beach" in 1984. Her vocal style, clearly influenced by gospel but intensely dramatic and ranging from theatrical spoken words to angelic and beautiful melodies, will never appeal to anybody without repeated and patient listening. The musical backings on Siberry's work have often aided this dramatic, mystical singer/songwriter's undoubted vocal ability, but have been greatly varied from synth-rock in her early years to unaccompanied folk.

"Maria" was Siberry's effort at a jazz album, being recorded live in the studio with a jazz band including pianist Tim Ray, drummer Brian Blade, bassist Christopher Thomas, trumpeter David Travers-Smith and percussionist Ian McLauchan.

Following on from the hymnal and intensely mystical When I Was A Boy, "Maria" (as one would guess from the title) continued the almost religious focus of that album, but without the languidness of When I Was A Boy. This was evident on the title track, where Siberry appears to be singing an almost-religious invocation with the repeated "Maria, Maria", and on the beautifu standout track "See The Child", which was a most haunting and powerful tale of a lost child and a community's effort to find him.

"Honey Bee" moved back towards the typical nature-based lyrics of Bound By The Beauty, but "Caravan", with the line "how far is the nearest place to kneel", certainly could be too religious for many listeners as she describes a difficult journey across some cold, arid landscape. "Begat Begat", with its lavish piano intro, and the line "mahalaleel shushan shibboleth tarshish shadrak vashtish jared shebadiah shushan mahaleel shekaniah amariah anathoth", was the most upbeat piece Siberry had written for some time, yet was so intensely mysterious that a listener could actually notice this depth without any real effort, especially during Siberry's piercing "Oh Oh".

"Goodbye Sweet Pumpkinhead" and "Would You Go" showed Siberry at her most solemn and her voice at its most beautiful, whilst "Mary Had A Little Lamb" set to a typical Siberry vocal accompaniment moving from rapid, almost spoken voices to a powerful gospel-type chorus, then to a reciting of earlier line from the title tune.

The second part of "Maria" was taken up by "Oh My My", a 20-minute epic dedicated apparently to Siberry's mother and brother.

Though "Maria" was the most coherent and least difficult album Siberry had done, Siberry will always remain an unacquirable taste for most listeners. Here is the place to start if you are confident about her, though.(Amazon review)