Toronto is hardly a hotbed of soul, blue-eyed or otherwise. But geographic roots inform little of Amanda Marshall's third album. As the title suggests, her lively songs play out against a more personal landscape of first- and third-person perspectives and narratives. While Marshall's husky, expressive voice sometimes lapses into contemporary R&B shadings, it's often a shrewd vehicle to deliver genre-blending songs whose viewpoints and rich, telling details are anything but mundane.Part confessional, part personal challenge, the album's songs are largely rooted in autobiography. "Double Agent" explores Marshall's bicultural roots (Canadian-Trinidadian). "Colleen (I Saw Him First)" offers up a romantic rivalry steeped in tragedy. "The Voice Inside" acknowledges the foibles of ambitions of all stripes. Marshall's songwriting collaborator-producers--Peter Asher (the onetime Beatles associate who's midwifed careers from James Taylor's to 10,000 Maniacs'), Billy Mann (Diana King, Art Garfunkel), and NYC DJ Molecules--wrap her voice in an intoxicating cocktail of orchestral flourishes, hip-hop beats, crunchy samples, and crystalline acoustic guitar that inform, tease, and cajole Marshall's spunky groove musings and solid pop instincts ("Dizzy," "Crystal Ball," "Gypsy," the title track) to new heights. --Jerry McCulley
