Errors & Admissions

Jenn Franklin co-wrote the first two songs on this six-track, 26-minute EP with her producer, Peter Overton, who also plays most of the instruments on the disc, and they're the two rockers, which seems to suggest his contribution musically. The leadoff track, "What Took You So Long," is a romantic come-on that Franklin sells with the domineering passion of Ann Wilson. But she becomes more poetic and standoffish, if no less passionate, on the more characteristic piano ballads that take up the last two-thirds of the tracks. "Innocence to Lose" and "Fade" are both songs in which the singer is trying to get rid of a lover instead of attract one, while on "Mercy" and "Cozumel" she is reacting emotionally to her environment. But whatever the focus of her attention, she feels strongly, and she expresses those feelings in a powerful voice over the piano chords. Laura Nyro and Joni Mitchell both come to mind for comparison, but Franklin is more of a rocker than either one. This is a promising short collection that whets the appetite for a full-length statement from the artist.