Sky With Stars

Michal Towber grew up in New York City taking classical piano lessons, but the first album she bought was Nirvana's Nevermind, and you can hear that dichotomy on her debut album, Sky With Stars, which is one half pop/rock leaning toward grunge and the other half acoustic music with strong classical leanings. In fact, the disc is more like two EPs stuck together than a single album, since the six rockers come first, followed by the six ballads. RPM/Columbia may figure that it has a combination of Courtney Love and Jewel on its hands, and that's not far from right, for better or worse. During the first half of the record -- its two initial songs, "My Friend" and "Broken Boy," co-produced by her mentor Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum -- Michal rocks out while singing blunt, flippant lyrics imbued with youthful despair. The material is more power pop than punk, with the exception of "Juliet's Refrain," which deliberately evokes the quiet-on-the-verses-loud-on-the-choruses style of Nirvana. During the second half, she displays those classical chops while singing precious, pretentious lyrics imbued with youthful romantic longing. It can seem like you're listening to an entirely different artist, except for the occasional moment when the singer's tougher side comes out, such as in the way she spits the word "kill" in "The Best Way." What she needs to do, of course, is find a way to integrate her soft and hard sides, but Sky With Stars is still a promising first effort. (The CD has a multimedia component that can be played on computer; it includes a photo display that accompanies an excerpt from the album's leadoff track, "My Friend," a screen saver, and a bonus track, the funky "Through Walls.") ~ William Ruhlmann