Somewhere Gone

Punk icon Exene Cervenka is a creative cyclone, moving effortlessly from music to visual arts to poetry and spoken word. Her first solo musical release since 1991’s *Running Scared*, *Somewhere Gone* revisits that territory, trading the more boisterous approach of other side projects such as the Original Sinners and the Knitters for a more vulnerable, singer-songwriter sound, with poetic overtones. Accompanied by strummed acoustic and electric guitars, delightfully restrained drums and moody, faint keyboards, Exene’s voice is really the focus, and her skillful delivery of a style that veers towards sweetness, without ever quite getting there, clearly and distinctly brands her work. Though the delightful twang of “Trojan Horse,” the interplay of dark guitar strumming and sad strings on “Somewhere Gone,” and the folksy tweeness of “Why Is It So” is enough to get lost in, we admit to letting our imagination run a bit, sometimes filtering these songs through Cervenka’s original voice with punk band X just for fun. Surprise! These songs rock, both ways.