Sarah Shannon, "Hey Heartache"/"Along The Way" (2007)

Tell me her new (second) album is on Minty Fresh, that it contains songs no critic has ever described without using the tongue-twisting adjective "Bacharachesque," and you'll find me at least joining the line to check out Sarah Shannon. (It's at least a more persuasive angle than reminding me that Sarah used to be the lead singer of Velocity Girl, whose songs I have never intentionally listened to [though I'm sure they're perfectly nice], or even pointing out to me that she was the one who contributed the vocals to Styrofoam's 2005 reworking of Free Design's "I Found Love.")

A more difficult decision is choosing between "Hey Heartache" and "Along The Way." The former gives great piano: on the verses, it does that bump, bump-bump easy listening rhythm that I'm a total sucker for, before playing a short but sweet tinkly part to lead us into the chorus, where it becomes more vampy. But on the latter a fantastic trumpet blows: kickstarting the track, it at first just reinforces Sarah's points ("rise above it...bluh bluh bluh BLUH!"), but increasingly seems to acquire a mind of its own (during the chorus), and thereby gets rewarded with a solo that serves as both middle eight and a glorious outro. I guess I'll take both.