Oddly, it wasn’t until she was dropped from a major label and formed her own, Bad Dog Records, that industry heavyweight WXRT in Chicago finally started playing one of her songs ("Linger," from 2001’s Steady Pull). XRT is already heavily rotating "Better After All" from Brooke’s brand new (release date February 24) album, Back In The Circus. I was thrilled to be in a position to secure an advance copy myself and have been digging it now for a couple of weeks – long enough to write a real review.

This disc has promise. When you’re a fan of an established artist, getting the new record can be a frightening experience. You naturally compare it to the last one or to your favorite one. In Jonatha Brooke’s case, I was disappointed in Steady Pull. It was a good record, but lacked the stellar songwriting of the two discs before it. So with Back In The Circus, I was hoping for a return to form. But the best artists don’t give you returns to form, they give you something different. Despite help from accomplished producers like Mitchell Froom and Eric Bazilian on this album, Jonatha holds creative control here, as she is listed as producer and arranger for all tracks, with co-production credit on half of them to Bazilian, Ryan Freeland, or Goffrey Moore.

What Brooke has done for most of this record is strip back the sound, yet it’s not an unplugged album. In fact, electric keyboards lead a large number of the songs and programmed beats, rather than full drums, provide many of the rhythm tracks. This makes for some sparse, introspective moods, with the thought-provoking lyrics and Jonatha’s girl-next-door voice taking center-stage. Because that’s the feeling a good Jonatha Brooke song gives you: that you’re talking to a friend who, because she didn’t grow up as your sister, can tell you things about your own life that you lack the perspective to notice or, at least, to articulate.

The best of these here is "Sleeping With the Light On," which feels like it’s happening in your own room and that noises on the recording are actually your own phone ringing or your own glass getting knocked off your nightstand. Toward the end of the album, "No Net Below" offers a similar, though less unnerving ambience. The more fully arranged tracks ("Back in the Circus," "Less Than Love Is Nothing," "Everything I Wanted") are compelling, too, but so far I prefer the quieter songs. This is what I meant earlier, about the disc having promise. Repeated listenings provoke new responses.

None of the Jonatha Brooke records I’ve previously have included songs written by others, particularly not songs that were big hits. Singing James Taylor’s "Fire and Rain" is a little like remaking Casablanca. The artist is so closely identified with the song that it would seem impossible to put a new spin on it, but Brooke’s version finds that new spin, telling more about the loss of a friend, rather than JT’s death of a lover. It’s more jaunty, less tragic, and just as moving as the original. Brian Wilson’s "God Only Knows" is a terrific pop song, perfectly expressing the incongruity of being in love in a dynamic, richly smooth melody. This cover is more of a tribute than her "Fire and Rain" take is, but Jonatha does some laid back scatting in the latter portion of the arrangement that helps to make it her own.

The biggest surprise cover, saved for last out of the 11 tracks on the CD, is of Alan Parsons’ "Eye in the Sky." I remember the Alan Parsons Project as an overblown, studio-oriented ensemble in the overblown, studio-oriented late '70s and early '80s. I’ve heard this song a lot over the years on the radio and never got the lyrics. This is a beautiful song, but it took a sensitive singer to strip it down and let the listener get what’s being sung.

So would I recommend Back in the Circus? Definitely. For the fan, it’s a welcome return by an underappreciated singer. For the uninitiated, it’s a legitimate first experience of the music of Jonatha Brooke, the friend you didn’t know you had.

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