Tracy Bonham has been waiting for this for a long time. A reeeeal long time. It's not supposed to happen this way. You make a hit record, it goes gold, you make another one, and you get rich, right?

Such is not the case with Tracy Bonham.

Her new release can hardly be called new, having been recorded mostly in May of 1998, which, if had been released soon after, would have been a normal amount of time to have passed since her debut in 1995.

But the powers that be had other things in mind. Like making money and merging record companies, and tying up the courts with yet more intellectual property lawsuits and such.

It frustrates me as a fan of her music that this has happened to her, a victim in the big muddy waters of corporate giants, where the artist almost surely loses.

Amazingly, when one would tend to think that her "music of the day" would now be passé, or not quite hip anymore, it has stood the test of time and musical style-changing…..and done so before ever making the airwaves. Shouldn't this record sound old, or not up-to-date???

Probably. But it's really just more of a credit to her that you can't tell it's not fresh off the DAT.

Tracy Bonham has grown up so very much in the few years since her first offering, which immediately grabbed you and would not let go, with undeniably catchy lyrics, and tunes you couldn't get out of your head. In short, a delightful epic kind of record…..the kind that makes you think the artist has been saving them up all her life. And probably did.

Her new cd, I must admit, didn't have the same immediate appeal to me, being much deeper in content, richer in its diversity. She has gotten much darker and introspective, while still retaining that same beautiful quality that only Tracy can give us quite this way. T

his girl is a WHOLE lot more than "Mother Mother".

Her lyrics have always been her main draw…..weird, catchy, deep, sometimes with the most hilarious play on words. It's nice to know some things never change. A quick listen to Navy Bean (a sequel to her first album's "Jumping Bean") will remove all doubt, with possibly the most clever sexual innuendo gone bad that you'll find.

She tempers that, however, with some very emotional insights into her own soul, with songs like "Freed", a song about deliverance from a relationship, or life, or you name it. She has the most incredible ability to take you on a floating ride with her, and to make you get lost, willingly.

Going from a song like that to "Cold Day In Hell", which showcases first Tracy's classical violin training (she was invited to one of the most prestigious music schools in the world right out of high school, only to be dismissed 3 weeks later for being caught smoking a cigarette --- classic Tracy), to an extremely dark, textured riff-based backdrop of hard pounding rhythms & guitar, with her signature trippy lyrical stylings and repetitious phrasings.

She has gone from her very diverse musical upbringing as the daughter of a music teacher who exposed her to everything from musical theater, to classical music, to contemporary pop, to rebelling against that upbringing violently on her first release, and now back again full circle, embracing her classical roots, finding the most creative ways to mix it together with her own musical tastes. When it comes to her early violin days, and having almost gone that way as a career, she says, "I was not willing to lock myself in a practice room for five hours a day for the rest of my life. So I decided, screw this, I'm going to sing."

She always seems to take the road less traveled, gettting completely experimental on tracks like "You Can't Always Not Get What You Don't Want", which is still growing on me, like the entire album….but I find it happening quicker and quicker the more I listen to it.

This is not an album for the casual listener of music, save for a few tracks that you just can't help but like immediately, like "Behind Every Good Woman", one of the albums' best chances of commercial success, which is actually reminiscent of some of the selections from "The Burdens Of Being Upright".

Somehow, I get the feeling that Tracy could really care less whether she ever "makes it big", though. Her attitude and lyrics and life seem to scream that loud and clear. Love her, but love her for her, not for what you want her to be or fit into.

But given the chance, she is sure to suck you into her world and demand that you fall in love with her particular take on the world. What a breath of fresh air, refusing to conform to what "alternative" is supposed to be.

One more thing of mention about the album is the incredible production work on it, from a technical point of view. Rarely do I see an album which has found that rare balance of technology and slick production, while still keeping the artists original intentions and feel. This is one of the best exceptions I can think of, using creative sampling and sequencing techniques that mesh seamlessly with Oregon-born Tracy's raw vocals and guitars. To thank for this is Mitchell Froom (husband of Suzanne Vega and producer of Richard Thompson, Crowded House, Ani DiFranco etc) and Tchad Blake.

Also enhancing and expanding her musical horizons is the addition of her new husband to both her life and her music, who is best known as the drummer of Soul Wax.

If she keeps writing songs like "Second Wind", a slow masterfully-written ballad that speaks to everyone's situation, how could she not continue to build her already very devoted fan-base?

"Second Wind, calling all the forces in, I'm in need of second wind, a second wind down here, saving grace, calling every puckered face, I'm in need of a saving grace, a saving grace down here, wake the thunder, lightning, whisper in his ear, in his ear, tell him we're in need of strength, face down here…..down here"

Tracy, don't change, or keep on changing….it doesn't matter, we are listening…AND HEARING.