Martha Wainwright’s Latest Dose of Saucy Sentiment

Martha Wainwright has never been shy about expressing her more seething sentiments. That was made apparent on her notorious early outings, the descriptively titled “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole” and her extraordinarily explicit self-titled album debut. Of course, when you grow up in the Wainwright household surrounded by talented, yet outspoken parents and siblings, a hint insurgence is bound to slip through. Still, that was 12 years ago, and now that she’s had opportunity to excise that antagonism, she’s reigned in her more provocative designs and focused instead on massaging her sound. Not that she’s given up her roughshod ways entirely; opening track “Around the Bend” finds her reminiscing about how “I used to do a lot of blow” before adapting the guise of a tortured chanteuse in songs such as “Before the Children Came Along” and “Window.” Wainwright’s gift for affectation sometimes seems a tad self-conscious, and when she dishes out the drama on “Piano Music” and “So Down,” it lands her in the same posh terrain as Kate Bush, Tori Amos and Cassandra Wilson. Wainwright herself can be both striking and sultry, but while many of these songs seem to drift along with a kind of nonchalance, the mood is anything but carefree. Even the affable “Franci” seems to mask a troubled spirit, one that’s dark and demonstrative. Martha may sound less contentious and considerably more poised, she can still come across as tangled and tempestuous whenever she feels the fervor.