If the extended Broken Social Scene family were the Brady Bunch, then Land of Talk singer Elizabeth Powell would be the Jan Brady to Feist's Marsha. Everything comes easy to Feist; on her solo records, she sings as if her greatest problems in the world are being too in love and having to shoo away the hummingbirds that keep landing on her finger to serenade her with happy songs. Powell sings in the same pretty, jazzy tones as Feist, but she's more tortured and volatileit's easy to imagine her tugging at her hair while she writes these songs in seclusion. Powell is the more interesting, dramatic songwriter, and on Land of Talk's second full-length album, Cloak and Cipher, out today, she once displays her ear for sharp, stormy guitar riffs, and even proves herself something of a shredder.
Also out this week:
* Are You My Mother, the debut album from late-addition New Pornographer Kathryn Calder, with songs addressing the death of her mother
* 31 Minutes to Takeoff, the debut from electro-soul singer Mike Powell, who positions himself as an unlikable Justin Timberlake
* The latest from Los Angeles metalheads Black Label Society, Order of the Black
* And a new EP from country singer Blake Shelton, All About Tonight, his second EP of the year.
