In the Skyline

Seattle singer/songwriter Andrea Wittgens has been garnering comparisons to Rickie Lee Jones, PJ Harvey, and Regina Spektor, and that's fair enough — but at her best you'll also hear significant echoes of Kate Bush in her prime, and at her more self-indulgent you may find yourself trying to shake images of Tori Amos out of your head. For the most part, she's very much at her best on this, her second solo album (she previously also appeared on one EP and one full-length album as a member of Sugartown). "Cardboard Cutouts" finds her in quirky-tuneful mode, while the elaborately lovely "Empires of Straw I" brings a luscious-sounding string quartet to the mix to support a baroque melody and her sweetly plainspoken voice. "Creature Feature" subtly evokes early Elvis Costello, while "Wrecking Ball" is especially reminiscent of middle-period Kate Bush. When she lets her quirkiness get away with her, you might roll your eyes just a bit at the finger-popping cabaret of "Marching Orders" and wonder whether "Comme Tu Veux" was written in French in an attempt to disguise the banal vagueness of the lyrics. But mostly one just smiles at the little musical surprises that pop out from time to time, and at her often simple but never condescending way with both a tune and a lyric.