Tabitha Monet, Adventures of Me and Me

The title is really gonna say a lot, here. At first, I thought Tabitha Monet was signed and had a million dollars’ worth of studio time behind this record. And yeah, I was still planning to say that it was recorded very well. Beyond that, the packaging looks like each CD cost $20 apiece. Turns out, though, that this was all done locally; that shows a lot of dedication, and says Ms. Monet’s not going to go away. Even her Website looks like a million bucks.

Tabitha (“Tab,” for short) lists her influences as Aimee Mann, PJ Harvey, Joni Mitchell, Ani Difranco, the Indigo Girls, Björk, Tori Amos, Portishead, Sarah McLachlan…. I’d say that the list could go on (and on and on) fairly predictably, and the record shows this, although she’d do well to draw more from PJ Harvey or one of the other “tougher” ladies on the list. There’s a whole lot of Tori in this record; not as much man-hating, mind you, as occasionally aimless self-pity. The singing’s angelic, similar in tone and style to Natalie Merchant’s solo records, but I’ve never really liked it when people sing lyrics pulled from their diary. Her songs are better than that, but it does have that diary element. If you saw her at a piano bar, or playing a swanky hotel lobby, I’m thinking she’d seem pretty fantastic. I’ll be rooting for her next record to be the one where “Tab” rocks.