Jane Siberry - Maria

Jane Siberry's fourth and final album during her seven-year tenure on the major label Reprise Records, Maria is a decisive break from the lushly layered art pop of her previous work. Recorded with a quintet of jazz players led by trumpeter David Travers-smith and pianist Tim Ray, Maria is Siberry's Astral Weeks, a song cycle of lengthy, slowly unfolding tunes lacking conventional pop song hooks but awash in hypnotic beauty. Siberry makes the comparison particularly plain on the first two tracks, "Maria" and "See the Child," which both feature incantatory vocals and rushes of cyclical, chanted phrases. Read More