Mountains (2000)

Continuing the less-is-more arc of her work with Helium, Mary Timony's new solo project Mountains is predictably understated. While she hasn't abandoned her weakness for Tolkien lite ("I walk through the everlasting pit/By the mountain of fire..."), neither has she lost her petulant cant ("...and fountain of spit"). Still, her unerring instincts — a well-placed guitar strum here, an off-key phrase there — make this determinedly lo-fi effort an easy climb. B