The hook for reviews of this album seems to be: After the disappointing sales of her last album, the overproduced Omnipop, Sam Phillips returns with this back-to-basics CD, with spare arrangements based primarily on her acoustic guitar. Hogwash - on several counts. First, there's no necessary relation between the sound of the last record and its disappointing sales: as is often the case with low sales, her former record company, Virgin, neglected to do any serious promotion for the album. Second, the rich, varied production of Omnipop perfectly suits its songs (one reason it was one of my top albums of 1996), and that production follows quite logically from the approach she'd taken all the way from The Indescribable Wow, through Cruel Inventions and Martinis and Bikinis, and finally on Omnipop - all produced (as is Fan Dance) by husband T-Bone Burnett. Finally, although it's true that Phillips uses primarily acoustic instruments on this CD, and while the songs' textures are less dense than those of Omnipop, it's by no means merely Girl with a Guitar. Sorry. Phillips and Burnett use a broad array of (not exclusively acoustic) textures on Fan Dance, which suits Phillips' complex, abstract lyrics in a way that more simple settings would betray. Opening track "The Fan Dance" features a couple of hand drums, banjo, and "Quattro banjo guitar," while the following song "Edge of the World" is dominated by Phillips' piano. Two songs later, "Wasting My Time" is built around Van Dyke Parks' cello-based string arrangement . . . and on we go, each track having a distinct and often somewhat unusual sound. Other than Phillips herself, the most prominent guitar player is Marc Ribot, whose presence suggests it's not time to consign Phillips to the four-chord strumming acoustic folkie bin just yet. So Phillips is dressing up her songs in some different clothes - what about the bodies that clothing is draping? Fortunately, Phillips' way with melody and cutting if oblique lyrics remains. The title track and "Love Is Everywhere I Go" (the latter one of several tracks featuring harmony vocals from Gillian Welch) are among the more straightforward, catchy songs here, while nearly all of the remaining tracks repay close attention. Phillips is one of the best, most underrated artists of the last decade; here's hoping her new recording and label build upon her weekly exposure as music director and soundtrack writer for television's Gilmore Girls (itself an underrated, brilliant show).

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