Vonda Shepard - By 7:30 (1999)

Vonda Shepard was a veteran singer/songwriter with spotty success behind her when she caught a break as the musical voice of Ally McBeal. The audience that connected with that popular TV drama quickly took Shepard's music to heart, making a huge success of the 1998 soundtrack album. Now Shepard returns with her fifth disc. Coproduced by Mitchell Froom in a radio-ready style at odds with his experimentation with the likes of Suzanne Vega and Latin Playboys, By 7:30 will surely please those who are primed for its earnest cracked romanticism. Others--the type of listener, for instance, who's less than thrilled to note a guest appearance by Indigo Girl Emily Saliers--are likely to find its overwrought, clichéd sentiments irritating at best. --Rickey Wright