Real Life (2007)

Joan Wasser's star is often eclipsed by the talented men she's associated with — her collaborators Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons) and Rufus Wainwright, not to mention her former bandmate and lover Jeff Buckley. With Real Life, she could steal back some of that sparkle for herself. Wasser's warm, dusky vocals recall Dusty Springfield, and her evocative, incisive lyrics, an early Ricki Lee Jones. On standout tracks such as the aching lullaby ''The Ride'' and the anthemic ''Christobel,'' she is, in a word, arresting. B+ DOWNLOAD THIS: Christobel