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Pink Martini vocalist China Forbes looks like a young Carly Simon, and for those old enough to remember the classic Carly cover shots to No Secrets and Anticipation, that is a wondrous thing. But beyond titillating cheesecake glamour, China Forbes is a fantastic singer in her own right. Renowned for her multi-culti, genre bending ways with Pink Martini--a retro hipster outfit who perform songs in various languages over Latin and jazz beats infused with influences as far flung as France, Turkey and Brazil--Forbes finally releases her solo album this February, entitled '78.

Trained as an opera singer, the 37-year-old Forbes wowed them at her old alma mater (Harvard), performed off Broadway in New York, sang the title song ("Ordinary Girl") to the TV series Clueless, and recorded cornball Doris Day hit, "Que Sera Sera" (from Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much), for Jane Campion's 2003 film In The Cut. But all that hipster cache pales next to her cult fame with Pink Martini, and '78 looks to do her band one better.

First single "Everybody Needs Somebody" is the kind of nerdy, girl-meets-frog-turned-prince tale favored by TV ad campaigns and young women bored with their old Lisa Loeb CDs.  Forbes sings this candy colored, Boyce and Hart bit of fluff with appropriate glee and sweetness, but it's the rest of the album that posits her as more than a Saturday morning cartoon figure. Forbes' yearning vocals turn "Lovely Day" into a sexy country rocker easily worthy of Sheryl Crow. "When This Is Over" also recalls Crow in sultry mode, while the title track is more introverted and reflective, Forbes reminiscing about her childhood when "A Taste of Honey went to number one." Rocker "Hey Eugene" tracks more nerd-girl-in-love themes; "Gone" is a sexy, big-breasted folk strummer that imagines Forbes riding a stallion over the desert, her hair flowing and free like an iconic Lady Godiva.

'78 just might make Forbes a star, but if not, Pink Martini fans, girls who wear horn rimmed glasses and fans of retro folk pop will remain enthralled.

China Forbes
"Everybody Needs Somebody" (mp3)
from "'78"
(Heinz Records)

More On This Album

Breeders 2010?: Singing entirely in their native Spanish over blaring beats and colossal guitars, Madrid's Charades ply us with sweet harmonies and soaring riffs. En Ningún Lugar rocks sweetly and swiftly, the band's debt to My Bloody Valentine, the Breeders and the Archies as transparent as the girl/boy harmonies they so wonderfully espouse. Never mind that most every song sounds the same, Charades' lust for life cracks open the sky and your head with glowing melodies and candy inflected hooks. They pump the two/four machine as easily as riding  a rollercoaster, happy guitars ricocheting off bouncy drums in an endless feel good treat for the senses. You could describe Charades' dulcet tones and grooves as moptop fun, simple songs for troubled times, perfect pop without a hint of underlying angst.

"En Ningún Lugar"