Shivaree - Who's Got Trouble? (2005)

The velvety torch-and-twang tenor of singer/songwriter Ambrosia Parsley -- her name alone is delicious -- permeates Shivaree's third full-length record like smoke through a saloon filled with carnies. The trio's sophisticated blend of spacious alt-country and dark pop with Tin Pan Alley sensibilities -- keyboardist Danny McGough toured with Tom Waits -- more than lives up to the band name, which is derived from the French word "charivari," meaning "a noisy mock serenade (made by banging pans and kettles) to a newly married couple." Parsley, who sounds like a mischievous composite of Neko Case, Jill Sobule, and Aimee Mann, feels just as natural assuming the role of torchy vamp ("Lost in a Dream") as she does a wounded heart pining for her "Mexican Boyfriend," and "Little Black Mess," with its sensuous strings and jazzy piano, comes off like a moon-drunk cross between Björk and Nick Cave. At its core, Who's Got Trouble? is the soundtrack to a late-night road trip, and nowhere is that more apparent than on the subtle closer, "I Will Go Quietly." With its atmospheric banjo bookends and lonely last-cigarette-before-the-sun-comes-up imagery, it leaves the listener with an alarming sense of place and an unsettling case of Twin Peaks creeps.