With the standard-issue, off-center, extreme close-up of the album cover showing off the singer/songwriter's equally regulation-issue nose ring and lank hair, it's forgivable if one's first reaction to
Serena Ryder's debut album is "Oh dear, not another
Alanis Morissette clone." Learning that
Ryder is a precocious 21-year-old from Ontario (as
Morissette once was herself) doesn't exactly help, but prepare for a shock.
Unlikely Emergency not only isn't awful, it's genuinely really good.
Ryder's voice and guitar are backed by Toronto art pop gadfly
Hawksley Workman (who produces and plays drums), and a pair of his regular cohorts, bassist Derrick Brady, and ex-
Waltons keyboardist Todd Lumley, but this is
Ryder's show all the way. Possessor of a startlingly soulful and commanding voice -- the closest point of comparison is '80s electro-soul powerhouse
Alison Moyet, and she absolutely blows away that pretender to the throne
Joss Stone --
Ryder delivers her own songs (mostly mid-tempo rock with occasional folk and jazz touches) with unshakeable authority and then casually tops herself with a sterling a cappella rendition of the
Etta James standard "At Last." The album isn't perfect -- on the weakest track, the overwrought "Skin Crawl,"
Ryder does actually sound a lot like
Morissette, and that's never a good thing -- but with inventively weird songs like the voice-and-drums holler "Sing Sing" and catchy pop tunes like "Just Another Day,"
Unlikely Emergency has the depth and range of a seasoned pro. ~ Stewart Mason