French-born New York-based Dutch-Javanese-Russian-Israeli singer/songwriter releases second U.S. album
Does Keren Ann ever open her eyes when she’s singing? Nolita—her third album overall, but her first bilingual and her second released stateside—is full of drowsily intimate vocals so subdued they’re often upstaged by her ambitious arrangements and diverse instrumentation, from the C&W flourishes of “Chelsea Burns” to the quivering strings and heavy breathing of the title track. Her sleepy voice can’t sell “The Greatest You Can Get” or “Midi dans le salon de la Duchesse,” but she sounds perfectly at home amid the Nick Drake folk of “Que n’ai-je?” and the Gainsbourg swells of “La forme et le fond.”