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Jesca Hoop, Hunting My Dress, Last Laugh

She once worked as a nanny to Tom Waits’s three kids, but clear- voiced Jesca Hoop didn’t need to take any singing tips from her former employer. True, some of the Waits weirdness may have rubbed off on the Californian. Her second album has an off-kilter magic that’s as theatrical and quietly outlandish as any of his recent records.]