Album: Martha Wainwright, Come Home To Mama (V2)

Japanese/American producer Yuka Honda brings an eclectic sensibility – and the services of her husband, Wilco guitarist Nels Cline – to Martha Wainwright's latest songs, which characteristically zigzag about the emotional spectrum.

Quirky reassurances of love like “I Am Sorry” and “I Wanna Make An Arrest” are mingled with more cynical fare like “Can You Believe It”, where emollient sax tempers her taunt, “When I'm gazing longingly in your eyes, it's not for you, but the self I left behind.” Lyric themes range from the mythic (“Proserpina”) to the tragic (the car-crash narrative of “Four Black Sheep”), but ultimately, love wins through with “Everything Wrong”, which assures a child that, “I am only a stepping-stone for you to get where you must go.”

Download: Can You Believe It; Everything Wrong; Proserpina