Leah Andreone
Veiled
(RCA)
Rating: ****

Andreone's disc has been out for a few months now, but has only recently garnered some radio play following her recent WXRT budget show at Schuba's (an electric performance where Andreone revealed to the audience that her Chicago appearance marked the second time in her life that she'd ever seen snow!) With a quirky voice that sways between Tori Amos confessional and 1980's punk vixen, Andreone is an instantly engaging presence who writes catchy songs with lyrical wit and depth. In "Happy Birthday" she sings from the persona of an unborn baby who observes during its birth, "you're my first love / I know you inside out / and what you already ate I'll eat / naked and lonely / will somebody hold me / the deed is done, let's start day one / you're stuck with me!" While "It's Alright It's OK" and "Come Sunday Morning" are the disc's best radio tracks with their hooky guitar lines and big rock sounds, it's on tracks like "You Make Me Remember" and "Imagining You" that Andreone hits her best stride. In "You Make Me Remember (things I want to forget)," she reveals the emotional death of a relationship in taut lines like "you share your dreams / I see nothing." And in "Imagining You," with acoustic guitar backing she muses softly, as if singing to a sleeping lover: "what would morning taste like with you... did you ever think what loving me could mean / when you're all alone do you imagine me?" With quiet, emotion-ridden lines she unwraps personal moments of incredible power in both of these tracks.

This is one of the best debuts of 1996.

John Everson