She's always smartly dressed, but are Sam Phillips's suits getting a little tight?
Phillips is the latest artist to rely too strongly on a producer, a shame given a voice whose secular sound and background in Christian music promised so much.
We'll assume Phillips and producer T-Bone Burnett remain an item. We'll assume she loves the way he treats her voice like a jewel, but the woman whose twist on psychedelia was once so intriguing is repeating herself.
Baby I Can't Please You is a rewrite of Flame, Same Changes the psychedelic tune, Black Sky the one where T-Bone plays with knobs and wraps her voice in telephone distortion, Fighting With Fire the bit where the producer's percussion adds atmosphere.
It's too tasteful by half, too insular. The Lennonesque intro Love and Kisses is a strange choice to set the tone. Lennon was about fearlessly following an individual vision. Listen to the oblique cover of Gimme Some Truth that closes Phillips's album and spot the difference.