Comatized (2008)

Diana Ross' guitar-strumming stepdaughter Leona Naess (via ex-husband Arne Naess) is clearly not untalented, but she isn't clearly talented, either. There's an intelligence on Comatized, but it's almost buried beneath an avalanche of half-digested influences (Debbie Harry, Rickie Lee Jones, English post-punk). The production, by Scott Litt (R.E.M.) and Tommy D, is almost too kaleidoscopic and clever, as if to conceal an absence at the center. C+

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