Sixpence None the Richer - Divine Discontent - Music & Performance - CD

If it seems like a while since Sixpence None The Richer have released an album -- way too long, in fact -- there's a reason: contract and label hassles. The good news is that they've put the time to excellent use. It was always going to be tough to follow up their self-titled 1997 breakthrough album with its starring single "Kiss Me" but they've come up with something special. Divine Discontent is a more complete, more mature album, at once lush in its textures, alluring in its sweet musicality and soothing in its spirituality.

The single, "Breathe Your Name," which opens the album, epitomizes this development. Acoustic and airy, it finds singer Leigh Nash at her irresistible best. She shows that there is no need to oscillate through a vast vocal range or bend every note to breaking point to make the right impact. Instead she uses intonation and inflection with perfectly controlled subtlety to infuse the song with meaning and emotion. "Tonight" is slightly more beat-driven pop in the No Doubt/Stretch Princess mold. It too has the catchiness of a single, which hinges on Bangles-like harmonies.

The romantic ballad "Down and Out of Time" takes flight on Nash's vocals and stays aloft on musical accompaniment that is a triumph of fine arrangement and calculated understatement. One of the album's highlights is the band's sweeping cover version of Crowded House's classic "Don't Dream It's Over." They have taken a tightly-crafted song and made it more luxuriant.

The spirituality pours out of several of the tracks, none more so than the acoustic-guitar-and-strings-driven song of devotion "Melody of You." The delicately melodic chorus pulls the listener completely into the moment: "This is my call, I belong to You/ This is my call, to sing the melodies of You/ This is my call I can do nothing else/ I can do nothing else." Meanwhile, the power-pop of "Paralyzed" -- an anguished-cry-of-a-song about the war in Kosovo -- takes the disc temporarily and successfully in another musical direction.

"Eyes Wide Open" leaps from acoustic folk to big production without causing the listener to feel a bump. The song has a very Beatles feel to it. "Dizzy" is a stirring ballad about faith, "Tension In A Passing Note" is a gently poetic song of longing, and "A Million Parachutes," which closes the album, recalls some of Joni Mitchell's work.

The stunning arrangements and slick production make for the capstone of this delightful set of songs. Sixpence None The Richer have grown since last we heard from them. Their songwriting skills are more consistent and every track on Divine Discontent is strong and inviting with a high romance quotient. Here is a band that you just know is going to be around for a long time.

By Adrian Zupp