Canadian singer/songwriter
NEeMA's second album,
Watching You Think, was co-produced by
Leonard Cohen (who also painted the cover art) and features sidemen including members of
Arcade Fire. It's easy to hear what attracted her countrymen to the project, as she proves a thoughtful lyricist and catchy composer with a husky, conversational alto voice reminiscent of
Melanie's. Most of the songs are her own, an exception being
Mark Knopfler's
Dire Straits ballad "Romeo and Juliet," a lilting street-corner romance that seems especially attractive to female singers. (It has long been a part of
Shawn Colvin's repertoire as well, for instance.) That cover provides a good guide to the sound of
NEeMA's own music, which tends toward folkie ballads in which she muses on matters philosophical and romantic. "Escape" has the bouncy sound of a mid-‘60s pop/rock tune, but usually the singer speak-sings at slow tempos over acoustic guitar patterns with a few added instruments. The simplicity of the tunes and the poetic turn of the lyrics often recall
Cohen, particularly in "Sidewalk." The singer reserves her most overt expression of love for the album closer, "Elsa's Lullaby," a song for her dog. For the album's American release, however, she has added "Masi 2010," inspired by the time she spent working with the Tlicho indigenous people of northern Canada, and it proves the disc's most political track, the wailed choruses and spoken verses sounding like a cross between
Buffy Sainte-Marie and
John Trudell. ~ William Ruhlmann