STREETWISE LULLABIES / RYKODISC As former singer with sublime pop merchants Luscious Jackson, Jill Cunniff is someone who is no stranger to producing classy, distinguished pop songs. With her debut solo record CITY BEACH, Cunniff continues that trend with a collection of songs that draw on her previous bands reputation and skill whilst adding enough of a new spin on things to keep things fresh. Opener LAZY GIRLS sums things up pretty succinctly, immediately setting out the tone and mood for the record. Cunniff possesses a creamy, sultry voice that glides perfectly over the languid bass lines and silky keyboard riffs, this mature, distinguished pop that lands somewhere between the trip hop likes of Morcheeba, Zero 7 and Portishead and the more overtly pop likes of Gwen Stefani or Britney. The jazz tinged HAPPY WARRIORS features funky brass interjections and grooving beats, Jill Cunniff centering the whole thing on an infectious chorus that just screams sultry summer afternoons. The impossibly cool pop of NYC BOY is a very similar story, funky guitar licks and saxophone wails coming together against Cunniff's effective vocal stylings. The more languid, laid back grooves of WARM SOUND present a more chilled out front, this classy pop firmly in the Zero 7 or Morcheeba mould. Elsewhere on the record, things start to take a turn towards the more slick pop oriented with songs such as LOVE IS A LUXURY, EXCLUSIVE and APARTMENT 3 ditching some of the more languid elements to instead present a more overtly mainstream pop feel; Jill Cunniff delivering songs that feel more Spice Girls than they do Morcheeba. FUTURE CALL is the nadir of this trend, a totally upfront and unapologetic shot at mainstream radio success; Cunniff descending into slickly produced clichés and bland RnB meets pop conventions that diminish much of the rest of the records classier moments. CALLING ME, fortunately gets things back on track; a song that steers things back towards her natural cool edge, a trick repeated on the equally impressive DISCONNECTION and particularly the wonderful LAST SUMMER, a late contender for album high point, glorious falsetto chorus and languid, laid back beats managing to forgive any previous discretions. CITY BEACH is a record that despite a clutch of weaker songs towards its middle section, has enough glorious moments to recommend it. Jill Cunniff is on superb form here with CITY BEACH, a record that brings some much needed sunshine to these upcoming cold winter months. Jill Cunniff, ex-singer of the alternative rock, all-girl group Luscious Jackson, explained her debut solo album as a “mood record made to bring the beach to caged up city dwellers. I hope it will also bring the city to homesick urbanites everywhere.” The twelve-track album is a breezy, earnest yet celebratory piece—aglow with motherly wisdom and metrical nods to the unassailable grit and color of urban life. Jill Cunniff was born and raised in NYC, and spent her days in Greenwich Village in an intense, bursting time for artists, eccentrics, and individualists searching for like-minds to connect with. Right in the heart of an ardent artistic community—where, as Jill described: “you’d see the freshest kids breakdancing right around the corner from St. Marks Sounds record shop and Rat Cage Records, which is where Jill’s friends the Beastie Boys first sold their records. Jill recalled: “we used to help our friends sell records on the street back then, and it was such a great place to learn about music—just hanging out and being a teenager. All the shop owners were artists and musicians; it was definition of an artistic community, a veritable cultural exchange" "City Beach" is the first solo album from Luscious Jackson lead singer Jill Cunniff. The songs on this breezy and mellow record are dedicated to and inspired by Coney Island, Riis Park and city beaches everywhere. Jill presently resides in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and two daughters. She wrote and produced the majority of "City Beach" in her recording studio, Streetwise Lullabies. The album is similar in feel to the eclectic New York City pop of Luscious Jackson, now with motherly wisdom stirred into the mix. The songs were envisioned as a soundtrack for driving up the Pacific Coast Highway in a white convertible. After an amicable disbanding in 2000 and a few years off for family life (their are now a few marriages and four mini LJ's), Luscious Jackson has regrouped and finished a children's dance record which is in development as a visual project. This website is a source of news for Jill Cunniff's releases and performances but will also feature LJ news as it happens. Jill Cunniff>http://www.jillcunniff.com