Paula Frazer: Indoor Universe

The melancholy, elegantly gothic art-country outfit Tarnation quietly dissolved after two exceptional but under-exposed albums, 1995's Gentle Creatures and 1997's Mirador. But the lack of fanfare surrounding the San Francisco band's demise might have something to do with its unofficial status as a glorified solo project for singer-songwriter Paula Frazer, whose soaring voice and flair for worldly musical flourishes also buoy her fine solo debut, Indoor Universe. Stripping away some of Tarnation's epic musical scope, the disc frequently focuses on torch-and-twang laments, each further cementing Frazer's status as an unjustly hidden treasure. Indoor Universe's most immediate standouts tend to deviate from the gloom and doom a bit (particularly during the downright bouncy one-two punch of "Think Of Me" and "Not So Bad, But Not So Good"), but the best material lies in spare slices of solemn perfection like "Stay As You Are" and "We Met By The Love Lies Bleeding." Frazer's subject matter is consistently and compellingly grounded in heartsick pathos, and few do it better, her tremendous, elastic voice evoking suffering and stoicism in equal measure. If Indoor Universe sounds somewhat minor compared to the more ambitious canvases of Gentle Creatures and Mirador, that's because it is, to an extent. But it complements those albums beautifully, making it an essential purchase once new fans have caught up. (Birdman, 1118 W. Magnolia Blvd., P.O. Box 208, Burbank, CA 91506)