Brazzaville - 21st Century Girl (2008)

Brown's look is a good match for his music, and 21st Century Girl is 50 minutes of graceful internationalist pop that glides from one style to another with an aplomb that seems almost effortless. An American expatriate living and working in Spain, Brown reveals a clear fondness for the relaxed Latin rhythms of the samba, which informs songs like "Up All Night," "Leo," and "The Hills of Anatolia," but that's hardly the only color in his palate; Brown lays a slinky reggae groove into the title track, there's a touch of a country shuffle in "Anabel," there's a subtle urgency to "Hoover St." that suggests Brown is up on his contemporary indie pop, and "Baltic Sea" and "The Clouds of Camarillo" recall Mark Eitzel's quieter and more introspective work with American Music Club.