Consumer Guide Album

Jealous of the Birds: Wisdom Teeth [Atlantic, 2019]
With arrant singer-songwriter aestheticism coming back strong, arty songs that ponder imponderables lucidly are an up. As County Armagh's Naomi Hamilton announces so winsomely, there is indeed a "chasm of language" "between the thought and the taste of this sandwich." But she has the brains to know that that's not the end of it: "Don't cast aside, dare to cleave/To the marrow of belief." If you're not quite getting what she's driving at, think it over as she compares Mozart to Sgt. Pepper, gives props to a Japanese goddess, and pursues love in Finland and on Long Island--all on one arrantly intelligent and unapologetically melodic EP. A-