Between The Buried And Me Alaska

Rothberg is one of the (few) post-Alanis women whose stance is more complicated than outraged one minute, cautiously loving the next. Her songs about relationships are complicated and often ambiguous, and she is equally unflinching in her descriptions of the successes and failures she has witnessed. Strongly rooted in the singer/songwriter aesthetic of one woman and her guitar, the songs on Between the 1 and the 9 are fleshed out a bit with other instruments but retain their edge. The biggest surprise here is in the maturity of her voice, which gives the songs their immediacy and intimacy.