My Cute Fiend Sweet Princess

Album Review

Kimya Dawson can sing "I can spoon a guy and still be his friend" with no abashment. It's almost as if she was never taught what's indecent. Sometimes that's what makes her so unique. Although given a simultaneous release, this solo entry (the more pensive and respectable of the two) was recorded a year-and-a-half after Knock-Knock Who?. Unlike the lush arrangements on her counterpart Adam Green's Friends of Mine, Dawson is content with lo-fi anti-folk. She's cute and lewd, sometimes within the same song, making clever pop culture and New York City references within her quick-witted rhymes. Sesame Street meets Ani DiFranco and Bob Dylan on shy songs such as opener "Chemistry," while Dawson even has a little girl to sing backup vocals on "Everything's Alright." Rarely does she add anything else, aside from something such as a twinkling toy piano in "Will You Be Me?" Whether she's expressing suppressed memories or feelings about relationships, there's plenty of leftover childhood angst. And that makes for something unyieldingly genuine.