I'm not much of a record reviewer. A quick glance at my music collection will reveal that I don't own a ton of new music. I try to stay current with what the kids listen to, but I'm still trying to catch up with all the great music that came out in the 20th century.

With that caveat, I just wanted to drop a little endorsement for Lullaby Baxter' s new CD "Garden Cities of To-Morrow." It's my favorite CD of 2006 so far, including the one I produced (apologies to Arthi Meera).

It's been six years since Baxter's debut CD came out and I'll never fully forgive her for making us wait so long to hear her voice on new songs. But damn if it wasn't worth the wait. Baxter's silky, creamy tone agrees with my eardrums in every way. Hers is my favorite living singing voice. It combines the richness of Peggy Lee with the immaculate phrasing and tone of Maxine Sullivan. Or to put more of an indie rock spin on it, she sounds like a more mature-voiced Mirah or a grainier Amy Millan.

Bing Crosby revolutionized popular song by understanding that singing into a microphone is an entirely different talent than singing on a Broadway or Vaudeville stage. Too many singers forget that difference (or ignore it). Lullaby Baxter's is a voice designed for a microphone. I don't think there's a single moment on the whole CD where she belts out a note, choosing instead to either whisper or speak/sing in an intimate way. Not to say she's a timid storyteller, but she lets the technology do its part while she does hers.

Almost improbably so, Baxter is also a gifted songwriter. No, I haven't deciphered what it is she singing about most of the time, but I know that the lyrics are never boring or even remotely conventional¹. One recurring theme I've detected is celebrating (or at least recognizing) the bigness-challenged ("you live in a funny little country"; "we'll try a little town, we'll find a little house, we'll sing like little birds"; "sewed you into the lining of my coat"; "where, my jumpy little crumb, are you?") The song, "Cardboard Armoured Car" sounds like a direct response to Franklin Bruno's "Only a Monster": "Could be I'm a pea-brain or maybe some mosquito, but I don't feel like a monster." Baxter's melodies are simple without being simplistic. I suspect there are lots of bittersweet major sixths in there.

The record was produced by the duo called Hercules. As a just-barely-not-amateur-anymore producer myself, I must say that the production on this record just leaves me feeling a mixture of awe and envy. A record by such a gifted singer as Baxter benefits from having the producer just step out of the way sometimes. Hercules does this with aplomb, carving out a canyon in the middle of each song for Baxter's velvety voice. But on the edges, the arrangements are burbling with beautiful little details: string section flourishes, little horn comments, organs and Rhodeses, flutes and more.

When I was starting up my little production company, I adopted with the motto, "Fun sounds, serious craft." While I don't think the word "fun" does this CD justice, I can't imagine not being delighted by it for the rest of my life.

¹ In Pitchfork's review of the record, Marc Hogan (a friend of a friend of mine) wrote "She's prone to eccentric figurative language that straddles the line between endearing and irritating, depending on your taste." I am mystified by this sentence. What the hell kind of cop-out is that? Does he find it irritating? Does he find it endearing but interviewed people who found it irritating? Even more priceless is Hogan's conclusion that the CD is "both too weird and too ordinary at once." The review straddles the line between exasperating and fucking annoying, depending on your taste.

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