Maria Taylor

Thank goodness for the Internet! Back in the day when LPs, tapes and CDs were the media for music, an uneven album represented an optimist/pessimist dilemma: buy it for the hits (glass half-full) or skip it for the misses (glass half-empty). LadyLuck, the newest from Maria Taylor, out Tuesday, March 31, is just like that. The up-tempo songs evoke the best of Aimee Mann; the acoustic tunes—including the disc-opening title track—call up the flat middle works of Suzanne Vega. So if you’re an iTunes sort of listener, make your own EP as follows: “Time Lapse Lifeline” (the first single—wow!), “It’s Time,” “100,000 Times,” “Green Butterfly,” “A Chance,” “Cartoons and Forever Plans” (wow, too!). Obviously, you couldn’t call it LadyLuck anymore … go with Lifeline, connecting the first track with a fitting phrase from the last: “And did you know / our love will never die.” If you’re a CD listener, wondering whether six fine songs to four eh is a good ratio, I’d say yes. Just consider the others B-sides. Maria Taylor’s A-material is exceptional, indeed.