KIMYA DAWSON
I'm Sorry That Sometimes I'm Mean
Rough Trade

ADAM GREEN
Garfield
Rough Trade

Although Dawson's I'm Sorry That Sometimes I'm Mean also claims to be anti-folk, the differences are major. Her voice is as slight as Green's, but she knows how to whisper, singsong and texture her tracks with toy keyboards, bird tweets, sirens and, bizarrely, the pull-string doll voices of "Talking Ernest." And can she write. After "Trump Style," a picaresque tale about pirates and roulette, she dissects her own romantic dysfunction three times running, delivering lines such as "Why do I always pretend/I can spoon a guy and still be his friend" as matter-of-fact confessions devoid of self-pity. Then she picks up on her long experience as a day-care worker, climaxing with, Korn fans, please note, a painful and profound abuse song. It helps that the abuse didn't happen to her, that she's a close personal enemy of a certain social worker and that she's not afraid to imagine a verboten way out: suicide. Unconventional? You bet. But only a boor would say yuck.

Rolling Stone, Nov. 14, 2002