ATTENTION MUSIC LOVERS: Everyone should know that Tanya Donelly's new album, "This Hungry Life" is really, really good. It takes some courage to record your new album in front of a live audience (she's the "Roc" of the ex-90's alternative scene!) and Tanya pulls it off with aplomb. The entire album was recorded over two nights in Vermont.The songs are Tanya's classic formula. That is, if she has a formula, she certainly has a sound. She's always been a strong songwriter with a great sense of pause and poise. She knows her voice is strange- like a smooth carol channing croon over guitars and large, rounded hooks. The addition of other instruments really fleshes this one out. The album is very solid, with a lot more variation in song style than usual. "Kundalini Slide" is one of my favorite songs of 2006.A great, great album. And while I'm not one to recommend by gender for fear of falling into any traps of auto-approval, Tanya is one of those artists that anyone all crazy about Ani or even the folkier women artists need to know. But more to the point, many of the guys who wrote off Belly after they dissolved need to get back into Tanya. She has a better ear than most artists that have (or haven't) survived the 90's. And her songs are a great listen. This new one's a great introduction for new fans, and a fabulous addition for longtime ones.-DeanP.S. Full disclosure and an aside: I admit, I'm a big Tanya fan. Once I paid $5 to see Belly and some other band in 1992 at the Boathouse. The other band was Radiohead, on their first tour and "Creep" had only started to get attention. I was there for Belly but was impressed with both. They did a song together I can not remember, but Thom and Tanya's voices could not be more oddly perfect. I met Radiohead at the Columbia hotel years later (and after I'd seen them many more times) and asked them about that Belly co-headlining tour. They all responded positively and Colin remarked that Tanya was fabulous with everyone agreeing. Too bad they never did more together...