"Just give me many chances...time to learn to crawl," sings
Rickie Lee Jones on this, her fifth album of new material in 14 years. Clearly, she's had a lot of chances already, and some have paid off big. Here, however,
Jones has made a record of what sound like rough performances of musical ideas that might at some point become songs and then, with some work, acceptable recordings. As it is, the record is vague and unfocused, only aspiring to coherence when someone other than
Jones is heard from, such as the two songs co-written by
Leo Kottke. Too much of the time,
Jones sounds like she's singing half-forgotten songs, and the result is wispy and fragmentary. [
Traffic from Paradise is also available in an import release.] ~ William Ruhlmann