Maria review

from PULSE! - Sept 1995 - Page 111
by Scott Schinder

Over the course of seven albums, inventive Canadian songbird Jane Siberry has transcended female-singer-songwriter orthodoxy to carve out a remarkably individual body work incorporating personal revelation and playful whimsy. "Maria" (Reprise, four stars---highly recommended) starts out less elaborately than 1993's audaciously widescreen "When I Was A Boy", with ubiquitous cocktail piano and fretless bass that would sound uncomfortably close to MOR jazz if not for Siberry's expressively twisted lyrics. Things get progressively more intense with "Goodbye Sweet Pumpkin Head" and "Would You Go?" before climaxing with the tour-de-force 20 minute epic "Oh My My," a moving meditation on innocence interpolating various childhood tunes.