Sam Phillips is a self-described sucker for a pop song. "There are some things on radio that you hear and you don't want to like, but you do," she explains, "because there's some sort of catchy melody or some kind of great thing about it that's sort of undeniable. I guess that's what pop music is about."
Ms. Phillips - who opens for Canadian singer Bruce Cockburn at the Variety Playhouse on Wednesday - is a pop singer in an unconventional sense. Her inventive melodies and skillful way with a hook have enraptured critics, but her songs are hardly typical Top 40 fodder. "Rolling Stone" magazine described her latest release, "Cruel Inventions," as "an exquisitely crafted, introspectively romantic pop gem," and "Entertainment Weekly" called it "one of the year's most beguiling records." Still, she isn't likely to be confused with Paula Abdul or Wilson Phillips. "That's a big relief," she says, laughing.
Ms. Phillips's brand of pop has that catchy, can't-get-it-out-of- your-head quality, but her richly layered sound doesn't quite fit in with rigidly formated pop radio. "The radio, what they don't want you to do is change the dial, and the best way to keep you there is to play something that's like everything else, that's very familiar," she says. "I'm not that old, but I do remember radio when it was actually a great thing to hear something different. Not everything was a dance song or a heavy metal ballad."
Sam Phillips doesn't do either. "If the radio doesn't like it, then there's nothing I can really do about that," she says. "But I have to make the kind of music that I really like." The release of "Cruel Inventions," the long-awaited follow-up to her acclaimed 1988 debut, "The Indescribable Wow," was delayed by the singer's label, Virgin Records, which, hoping for a hit, wanted her to add a cover tune.
She recorded John Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth," but chose to leave it off the album because it didn't mesh with the rest of the material. "It wasn't the Top 40 single that they were looking for," Ms. Phillips says.I'm flattered that they want to get it on the radio. But it just didn't seem like there was a great cover song to do at that point."
The recording of "Cruel Inventions" was a lengthy process of experimentation and overdubbing. The album, which features guitar performances by Elvis Costello, Marc Ribot, Ms. Phillips and her producer/husband, T-Bone Burnett, has a pop sound more in tune with the '60s than the '90s. "I go back to where I was 3 or 4. The Beatles were a big influence I think because of the melodies - they were beautiful-sounding things. People were experimenting a lot more then and doing different kinds of music, and the music business wasn't big money like it is now. I think the big money . . . has hurt a lot of the creativity.
"Although I would love for people to hear the music, and the music to make a connection with people," she says, "I'm not really interested in a lot of fame or money. Watching people I know who have a lot of both, it seems like a lot more trouble than it's worth."