Carina Round

Carina Round will have you careening around. OK, that was dumb, but it’s true—this girl is serious stuff. With a sound like P.J. Harvey’s but a voice all her own, Ms. Round is making her mark with the release of this, her second album, a self-written tour de force. She opens with “Shoot,” the loudest and roughest of the songs, and then slides into “Into My Blood,” which shows off a rare higher range and is one of her more up-beat tunes. “Monument” is rock-steady with a definite Bruce Cockburn sound and smooth lyrics. But the stand-out piece on the album is “Sit Tight,” a gripping, throbbing, brilliant song that you’ll want to immerse yourself in. What makes the album even better are Carina’s poetic, often abstract lyrics (“Send out your thoughtbeams/ a something to lead me on my way/ I used to float in your ice stream/ to weigh up my beauty day by day”). Grab the album and do some careening around yourself.