Mac - On How Life Is CDs • Vinyl Records • LPs • Music Albums

between Billie Holiday's wounded cry and Bob Dylan's feisty rasp, this L.A. scenester is the centerpiece of an album that sounds like a John Dahl film looks -- shadowy, classic and shimmering with contemporary nostalgia. When the melodies get singsongy and forgettable on "Still" and elsewhere, Gray comes across as stilted, and the retro arrangements, featuring multi-instrumentalist Jon Brion and other red-hot outsiders, seem overly styled. But on substantial songs like "I've Committed Murder," in which she confesses to killing her boyfriend's boss over the theme from Love Story, Gray glides through the aural cinema like a destined star. Rock needs more of these. (RS 819)

BARRY WALTERS