Belly - Star CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

and sexual implications of her femininity on Star. Indeed, several songs make elliptical allusions to childbirth or babies: On "Gepetto," Donelly and guitarist Tom Gorman spin an ever-widening web of electric-guitar arpeggios, as Donelly purrs in a singsong falsetto: "If you bore him, you lose your soul to him." On the baleful but seductive "Full Moon, Empty Heart," Donelly laments, "See this child, twice stolen from me," while the guitars creak and shudder like an old house groaning under the weight of too many memories.

Elsewhere, the woozy melodrama of "Sad Dress" is driven by a raga-inflected fuzz guitar and concludes with Donelly cooing an inspired bit of ambivalence: "I'd chew my foot off to get out of this dress." On Star's punchiest tracks, "Slow Dog" and "Feed the Tree," Donelly muses, albeit enigmatically, about death. But the prettiest melody on Star is "Untogether," a separation song that cushions Donelly's breathy vocals in a lush bed of Dobro fills and countrified acoustic strumming.

As she wrestles with truths that can sometimes transcend language, Donelly favors oblique images and phonetic intrigue over narrative. Her free-verse lyrics and metaphorical overreach suggest that in addition to burnishing her underground credentials Donelly has been listening to Blonde on Blonde or at least Bringing It All Back Home. These days, when too many alternative-rock bands worship at the Church of Perpetual Grunge and Dissonance – usually at the expense of the illuminating phrase – that's a very good sign. (RS 654)

KEVIN RANSOM