Ever since quirky, quixotic NY songstress Nellie McKay splashed precociously with her critically-acclaimed 2004 debut Get Away From Me (brilliantly produced byBeatles engineer Geoff Emerick), we've been waiting for a collection of songs that matched that album's audacious first step. With equal parts caustic wit and tongue-in-cheek whimsy, McKay's best songs have echoed timeless piano pop styles with a melange of Tin Pan alley, Broadway and cabaret influences. September 28's Home Sweet Mobile Home (Verve), thirteen new songs self-produced with her mom (!), promises a return to brassy, breezy form after 2007's more cerebral and jazzyObligatory Villagers and last year's Doris Day tribute Normal as Blueberry Pie.
Mobile Home also gets some artistic guidance from David Byrne, who tapped McKay for his recent Here Lies Love"pop opera" concept album. The Byrne input points to a connection for the album's diverse mix of eclectic styles as does some recording done in Jamaica -- hence the loping island beats of "Caribbean Time" and "Unknown Reggae." "I have no idea how this album happened," says Nellie. "I guess I was looking for a sound to reflect our shrinking world and the bleed of culture crossing all kinds of borders." In keeping with what the Village Voice describes as Mobile's "biting but beautiful" broad stylistic template, "Bodega" is spiced with a festive Haitian meringue while "Bluebird" drips with 20's nostalgia and social statement "Dispossessed" adds a Crescent City brass stomp.
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