Little Fugitive

Amy Rigby headed back to her old home town of New York City to record her fifth album, 2005's Little Fugitive, and given that 2003's Til the Wheels Fall Off found her ramping up both her energy and her always sharp songwriting chops for her best album since her debut, one might have hoped that a return to the Big City would keep the ball rolling. Well, close but not quite — Little Fugitive was recorded in a mere two days, and while it hardly sounds like a rush job, one can sense Rigby didn't quite have the time to put together as good a set as she might have hoped, as this isn't as energetic as Til the Wheels Fall Off, and the songs aren't quite as consistently strong. But the two albums aren't separated by a very broad margin; if Little Fugitive is noticeably one or two notches down from its immediate predecessor, it still stands head and shoulders above what the average singer/songwriter is serving listeners on a regular basis, and it's hard to imagine anyone who could write a beatific little fantasy like "Dancing with Joey Ramone" and follow it up with "That's the Time," about as honest a look at how a lasting relationship works as you're likely to hear, and have both songs work so powerfully well in each other's company. "The Trouble with Jeanie" and "Needy Men" are uncomfortably close to Christine Lavin territory (and are primarily responsible for lowering the album's batting average), but Lavin certainly couldn't come up with stuff as sharp or telling, and "So You Know Now," "Like Rasputin," and "I Don't Wanna Talk About Love No More" prove she's still a keen observer of the nature of the mating dance, and can set her findings to great pop tunes. (And how about a hand for Jon Graboff's production and Don Dixon's mix?) Little Fugitive may not be Rigby's best album, but no one who loves her work will feel disappointed with it — and if you haven't heard her stuff by now, why are you waiting?