To Survive

Both Joan as Police Woman albums offer engaging NPR-friendly pop music, the type that blurs the very thin line separating beloved cred-laden ladies like Neko Case and Cat Power from contentious Adult Contemporary staples like Norah Jones and Sarah McLachlan. Both albums focus squarely on Joan Wasser's smoky croon, and her sumptuous arrangements. In addition, both albums feature Wasser dueting with one of her former collaborators-- swap out Rufus Wainwright with Antony (of ...and the Johnsons fame) on the new disc, and it might be easy to mistake To Survive with her fir st record. Unfortunately, the qualities that To Survive shares with its predecessors belies its shortcomings-- what once sounded novel and fresh comes off as staid and static the second time around.

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