Becky Stark, a Los Angeles singer who currently performs in the band Lavender Diamond (the drummer is brilliant comic book artist Ron Regé Jr.), makes music that teeters on the edge of absurdity, singing with a high soprano voice so clean and crisp and clear that it almost sounds like a parody of a pure-voiced folk singer. She uses it to sing simple-minded, repetitive, almost nursery rhyme-like songs that, depending on your mood or inclination, can be quite affecting or just ... kind of silly. "You Broke My Heart" falls pretty consistently on the side of silliness for me, but I've been enjoying the Vashti Bunyan-esque "Rise Into Springtime" and the achingly sweet and bereft "Why Oh Why."
-- T.B.
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