The Golden State

After three solo albums for independent labels that emphasized an austere minimalism, Mia Doi Todd, a classically trained musician from Yale University, entered the recording studio with producers Mitchell Froom and Yves Beauvais to re-record seven highlights from her first albums along with three newly penned compositions for her 2002 major label debut. As Froom acts as an artist’s producer, having handled Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, Ron Sexsmith with sensitivity, he expands Todd’s sonic range without forcing her into compromising positions, providing her with an expert studio band featuring guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Jerry Marotta. Ambient textures add a soothing resonance to her pointed folk songs that recall the ‘60s folk traditions of Judy Collins mixed with the sparse mournful dirges of Cat Power. Todd’s simple, unaffected vocals add a sublime, melancholy to her slow haunting tunes — “Like A Knife,” “Independence Day” — that are disarming in their surface simplicity. Her music retains a childlike sense of wonder even as her sound matures along with the desperate personal and worldly concerns that infiltrate these inspiring tunes.

It's easy to understand why a major label like Columbia would sign Mia Doi Todd. On the strength of ...

On each of her previous albums, Mia Doi Todd had progressively moved more deeply into minimalism, recording Come Out of Your Mine after midnight in a church on the Yale campus with a single engineer and then dispensing with outside embellishment entirely on Zeroone, retreating into her home with only a computer and her acoustic guitar.