2 Foot Yard's
Borrowed Arms is an album of thoughtful, complex songs that defy easy classification. The trio's members -- violinist-vocalist
Carla Kihlstedt, cellist-vocalist
Marika Hughes, and drummer-guitarist
Shahzad Ismaily -- are known for their genre-crossing efforts in collaboration with folks such as
Tom Waits,
Secret Chiefs 3,
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and others. Even so, this album is surprisingly song-oriented and could almost pass for "pop" in an alternate world in which
Fiona Apple and
Björk played the role of, say,
Britney Spears and
Christina Aguilera. Call it "artful chamber-pop with cinematic overtones," or something along those lines. Both
Kihlstedt (who handles most of the lead vocals) and
Hughes (who handles the rest) are excellent singers, and all of them handle their instruments impeccably -- though it should be emphasized that their playing is consistently subtle and tasteful rather than flashy.
Borrowed Arms features several cameos, including ones by
Kihlstedt's Tin Hat Trio bandmates
Rob Burger (pump organ on "Red-Rag & Pink-Flag") and
Mark Orton (string arrangements on the title track and "Chapter IV"). Meanwhile,
Ben Goldberg lends his klezmer-tinged clarinet playing to a couple of tracks, and
Jim Campilongo adds a barbed-wire guitar solo to the opening track, "Octopus." Even so, the strength of this album is the combination of sturdy, memorable songwriting and the distinctive group sound the trio gets out of its unusual (but very natural-sounding) violin-cello-drums lineup. It's not always the case that highly talented musicians succeed at writing three- or four-minute pop (or almost-pop) songs, but here is a case where they do. ~ William York