Jessica Lea Mayfield

Tell Me Nonesuch***

When you put this album into your computer, the iTunes music genre identifier denotes it as "Other". Following her 2008 debut ( With Blasphemy So Heartfelt), Jessica Lea Mayfield's second album is that and more. The 20-year-old US singer and songwriter has a languor about her that might suggest laziness, but it's the slow drift from loneliness to misery that most informs her work. Perhaps not the best record for a singleton to listen to, Mayfield's country- hued songs of separation ( I'll Be the One That You Want Someday), failed romance ( Our Hearts Are Wrong) and general hopelessness ( Nervous Lonely Night) nonetheless ring true in ways that matter, her voice sitting comfortably and authentically, between the back- roads rasp of Lucinda Williams and the narcoleptic calm of Hope Sandoval. In a word, lovely. See jessicaleamayfield.com

Download tracks: I'll Be the One That You Want Someday, Trouble