Considerable time, thought and Guggenheim grant money went into the making of Patricia Barber's Mythologies, an ambitious modern take on Ovid's Metamorphoses. As she is wont to do, the Chicagoan continually reminds us of her aspirations to art with her joyless, half-whispered vocals and show-offy intellectualism. The song sequence, which seems destined for a staged reading, never escapes its literary trappings. But in reflecting on the age-old dance of dreams and destiny, the poetry is mostly good, and sometimes better than that ("unrequited love/is what i know of love/spellbound/I will stay"). And though Barber mostly keeps her considerable skills as a pianist under wraps after getting in some seductive and darkly rumbling licks early on, the varied musical settings prop the songs up. Mythologies ranges from jazz balladry to Hendrixian reveries (via guitarist Neal Alger), lifts openly from Joni Mitchell's Hejira, and tells another tale with hip-hop and a children's choir. This isn't an album for the Diana Krall set, and even some of Barber's early followers may take a pass, but for listeners on her wavelength, it will cast a spell. --Lloyd Sachs
