Besides a great, incongruous name, Sam Phillips (no, not that one - the lanky blonde singer-songwriter) has a talent for plumbing the dark heart of mankind. She's sort of a female counterpart to her husband, T Bone Burnett. And on her new Burnett- produced Martinis and Bikinis (Virgin), she surveys the clay-footed rat race with the same detached skill.
Sometimes the songs sound like sermons, but not often, thanks to Phillips' flair for hooky melodies. Coupled with the Beatlesque Revolver-era production, it makes songs such as "Same Rain" (with its musical quote of the Beatles' "Rain") and "Strawberry Road" (featuring guitar by Peter Buck) impossible to resist.
And though lyrics such as "I need God/not the political church" leave little question as to where Phillips is coming from, closing the album with a dead-on version of John Lennon's "Gimme Some Truth" drives home the point with resounding clarity.