After a pair of intriguing cover albums exploring her myriad influences, singer/songwriter
Mia Doi Todd returns to original music on the evocative
Music Life. A full decade has passed since the Los Angeles native last released a collection of her own songs, and the accumulated emotional weight of her experiences, particularly regarding motherhood and creativity, lends this set a reflective tone. Over the course of her career,
Todd's music has taken on something of a boho chic flair with a medley of global-oriented sounds folded into her unmistakably West Coast style. But like indie folk, folk-jazz, adult contemporary, or any of the other tags that have been applied to her music, this doesn't quite tell the whole story. Soft, melodic, and smart, the title track sets things in motion as
Todd offers a bittersweet paean to the pleasures and perils of living one's existence as a musician. The effects of her latter-day interest in Brazilian music can be heard in its underlying tropical current as her dulcet voice rises and falls against the repeating chord patterns. The wistful travelogue "Little Bird" floats along on an even breezier
Jobim-like samba pattern, while the exotic "Mohinder and the Maharani" takes a (somewhat heavy-handed) pass through the Indian subcontinent and "If I Don't Have You" pulses with gentle reggae rhythms. Chasing the muse, whether it be through myths, literature, travel, or her own inner landscapes is of utmost concern to her process, and for the most part she does so with a measured and well-read confidence. More than anything, though, the effects of becoming a mother and nurturing a child in the world seem to be a common thread running throughout
Music Life.
Todd's concepts of family and the sense of community she brings to her recordings generally make for an engaging and thoughtful listen, especially on this return to songwriting. ~ Timothy Monger