During an interview two years ago, when she was in the middle of a tour in support of her 1991 album "Cruel Inventions," Sam Phillips hinted that her next record would be more simple and basic.
It took Phillips two more years to finish "Martinis and Bikinis." The relatively long time between records might have indicated a U-turn to a more intricate direction, but Phillips did, in fact, follow through on her promise to keep things simple on the new record.
"When it came time to do this record, I went back to listen to Cruel Inventions,' and it was very hard to listen to for me," Phillips said. "There was a lot of stuff on it, and not a lot of instruments necessarily, but a lot of sound stuff going on, a lot of effects and things. I tried to take a lot of that away, a lot of the vocal effects. I tried to get that a little simpler. It just seemed more appropriate."
"Cruel Inventions" retained Phillips' trademark grasp of classic pop melodies, but they were spiced with all sorts of flourishes, from the multi-hued percussion of "Lying" and "Tripping Over Gravity" to the baroque overtones of the title track to the orchestrated pure pop of "Where the Colors Don't Go."
"Martinis and Bikinis," by contrast, takes a leaner approach. In fact, with its sweet melodies and the presence of harpsichord and other organic-sounding instruments, it sounds more like Phillips' 1988 record "The Indescribable Wow" than like "Cruel Inventions." Even so, the records have as many contrasts as similarities, with songs like "Signposts," "Circle of Fire" and "When I Fall" giving "Martinis and Bikinis" a harder edge.
Phillips' smartly crafted songs have made her a critics' favorite over the last three albums, and her audience has slowly expanded. Still, she has yet to match the fervent following she gained in a first, decidedly separate phase of her career.
Phillips, who is from suburban Los Angeles, got her start as a Christian recording artist in the early 1980s. Back then, she went by her given name, Leslie Phillips, and the three albums she recorded made her one of the most popular women artists in Christian circles.
Phillips thought Christian music would provide a good forum to explore spiritual issues, but gradually she began to question the premise.
As its title suggests, Phillips' third album, "The Turning," was a turning point in her career. By the time she was ready to make that 1987 album, she had grown uncomfortable with the limitations on Christian lyrics. She wanted to explore larger and sometimes blurry issue of spirituality, while followers of Christian music, in her view, wanted singers to stick to fundamentalist doctrines.
"The Turning" was her first album to step openly beyond what she considered the restrictions of Christian pop. Its lyrical themes were broader and more secular. It was also during this project that she met T-Bone Burnett.
After completing the record, Phillips left the Christian circuit for good, adopted the nickname Sam and signed with Virgin Records. She and Burnett then went to work on "The Indescribable Wow," and later they married.
Though Phillips would just as soon leave her previous recording life in the past, it's a topic that continually comes up in interviews. She also continues to write songs that touch on the issue, such as "Baby I Can't Please You" from "Martinis and Bikinis."
"Baby I Can't Please You,' I think, is a little more broad," she said. "It's not just talking about Christian fundamentalism, but it's also talking about Muslim fundamentalism or New Age fundamentalism. It's really the human tendency we have to reduce spirituality to a set of rules and dogmas and prejudices. It's more about that tendency in all of us to do that just across the board, in any religion, than it is about Christian fundamentalism.
"But I would rather close the book on that," Phillips said, speaking of her earlier career. "I think that in wanting not to really hide anything, to be honest, I've . . . said just about everything I could say. I've sort of exhausted the possibilities."
One thing that doesn't figure to change is Phillips' partnership with Burnett. In their relationship, Phillips said, they keep clear boundaries in their work. For all the closeness in their home life, there is notable disparity in their music, with Phillips' pop- oriented approach contrasting with the folkier sound of such Burnett albums as "Trap Door" and "The Criminal Under My Own Hat."
In fact, Burnett appears to leave less of an imprint on Phillips' sound than he has on records he's produced for Elvis Costello, Los Lobos and Peter Case, to name a few.
"I think it's good," Phillips said, "because certainly there isn't much distance in our lives, really, because we work together and live together, and that's a lot, although I really enjoy that.
"I think the domestic stuff, working on a relationship, the personal side of things, that's always hard. I think if you're going to have anything worthwhile, you're going to have to put work into it, and you're going to have to take care of it, so that requires a little bit more. But working in the studio has been nothing but fun." Sam Phillips: Opening for Counting Crows Where: American Theatre, Ninth and St. Charles streets When: 7:30 p.m. Monday How Much: $ 14.50 in advance, $ 16.50 day of show Also appearing: Buffalo Tom