makes them both sound like they just escaped the high school chorus and jumped into rock as a way to save their deeply oppressed souls. But Waronker is much more confrontational than Phair – Waronker is in the world, rocking out with her band. She's traveled from Long Island to Minneapolis to what she calls the "western horizon," pursuing adventures and going to punk-rock shows along the way.

Waronker has left the obsessive safety of the teenage bedroom on a wave of fast-moving post-punk explosions, driven by Tony Maxwell's power drumming and her own guitar; Retreat From the Sun leaps from big-hair solos to arty noodling in a single bound. Throw in Petra Haden's mournful violin and Waronker's lush piano, and Retreat's jauntily soul-searching sound reflects the emotional content of Waronker's musings entirely. When she sings about "one drunken kiss, one drunken lie, hung-over morning and a sobering cry," you feel exactly what she means. She's not being romantic, she's being a complete, if kinda sad, human being. (RS 758)

NATASHA STOVALL