Listening to this CD, I couldn't help but wonder: don't the critics who bemoan the admittedly crappy state of popular music bother to look around for anything better? Apparently, a lot don't - since Amy Rigby remains relatively unsung. Her tunes are solid, melodic, well-played, and well-arranged; her lyrics are smart, clever, sexy, and emotionally true; her singing has both grit and twang; her songs display rock, pop, and country influences in equal measure: there would seem to be no good reason lots of people might not like her. Critics have finally discovered the talents of Aimee Mann (Rigby could be her cousin, with Mann's Bacharach replaced by a stack of classic honky tonk 45s), so what gives? Nearly every song on The Sugar Tree might be considered a highlight, but I'll mention only a few. "You Get to Me" acutely describes the pain of a woman who wants a man more than he wants her - even though she knows he's not worth it. Its somewhat awkward acoustic guitar chords are an adept musical parallel to the narrator's condition. "Balls" replaces the heartache with resistance, and powers up the music accordingly. "Magicians," with its hook line "Let's leave reality out of this, shall we?" paints lovers as magicians who "make reality disappear" - and Rigby's fully aware that's neither a wholly good nor a wholly bad thing. "If You Don't Hang Around" gallops along to a rockabilly beat with slapback vocal echo and features a great piano solo that reminds me of Terry Adams (NRBQ) in a slightly outside mood. And "Cynically Yours"? That's a hilarious vow of noncommittal commitment. Regardless of fame or acclaim, The Sugar Tree proves Rigby to be among today's more stellar songwriters.

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