Ane Brun - A Temporary Dive

A Temporary Dive' is full of delicately-plucked acoustic guitars, soft piano, and tasteful strings. Sometimes Ms. Brun throws in some slide guitar and a bit of mid-Southern vocal twang and sounds a bit like Emmylou Harris. Not one to rock and roll all night, she sings earnestly of disappointing love affairs and her own slightly off-kilter emotional balance. It seems that Ane's got the polite, Scandinavian, blues. 'A Temporary Dive' is the sort of album you'd want to put on while cooking Sunday brunch, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Anyone who owns all of Beth Orton's albums will find 'A Temporary Dive' soothing and pretty; everyone else will deride it as dull-as-dishwater aural wallpaper. Everybody's right about Ms. Brun. [Andrew Monroe]