Comparisons to Natalie Merchant make a lot of sense when talking about Mandi Perkins - if Natalie liked to rock out. Mandi is a more visceral, less intellectual artist.

This album is full of good songs. In my opinion only two or three of the album's 13 tracks are mediocre, and the rest are very very good. I have one quibble with this album, though, which I'll get to after a moment.

I discovered Mandi because I went to a show for Tina Dico, and Mandi was playing afterwards. I wasn't particularly planning to stay, and, in fact, I was heading for the door when Mandi started her first song. I didn't make it. Mandi's voice grabbed me and didn't let go. I suspect most of the people in the venue were left-over Dico fans, but none of us left once Mandi started singing.

I was, therefore, a little disappointed when I first heard the album, because it's very polished. Too polished, in my opinion. You can hear the work Sony BMG put into the production, and the result is an album that veers into "overproduced" territory. It's not terrible, and, as my memory of the live show fades, it bugs me less and less, but the truth is that Mandi is a more powerful singer than is revealed on this album. You can hear the corporate polish, the desire to find a top 40 hit, all over this album, and it's a disappointment because Mandi's raw edges are a plus - they contribute to her power. This album is more generic than it needs to be.

Hopefully, as she gets a little more successful and a little wiser, she'll take more control over the production of her tracks. (Although, to be fair, comparisons of tracks from AiNML to the same tracks from Mandi's independent albums reveal that the Sony polish wasn't all bad.) None of this should discourage you from buying this album, because it's very, very good.

But catch her live if you can, because her music is even more impressive in person.