Literal-greeting opener promptly conjures up visions of the 1990's with its prefiguring of the Daria theme and metaphorical use of a disconnected modem, and stylistically throughout, they attempt to run the decade's radio-friendly gamut: resentful heavy alt-fuzz choruses, painless-n-jazzy trip-hop, wahka-wahka guitar, sappy softs. None of which are bad, really -- except the wahka, where that's usually inherent -- but it's fo-sho the r&b trip-hop that takes the cake, or perhaps has just aged kindlier, with now-vintage-dream single "Angry Johnny" and smoky old-school cut-up "Another World" particularly standing out. And though they certainly don't convince in the balladry and spoken word departments, Poe's no doubt got the voc-cords -- shame so many of her deliveries are banal or awkward or both. How many sex-as-violence violence-as-sex double entendres can ya really handle?
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