is not as impressive an effort as or , but ranks as a consistent, workmanlike project on a par with and . By now, 's approach is familiar. Although she is relegated to the woman's music genre due to her close association with , as usual there really isn't anything in her lyrics that justifies that categorization; it would be more accurate to think of her as a contemporary artist who happens to be a woman and therefore naturally uses women as the subjects of her songs, just as, say, does. has always been more interested in her music (as opposed to focusing primarily on the lyrics) than her peers in the women's music movement, and she has always been a child of , which she demonstrates here by writing a song that mentions famed disc jockey , covering the old hit and throughout constructing melodic, keyboard-based tracks to support her emotive vocals. The recurring term in the songs is "wolf," whether it's in the title song; the late folksinger , to whom is dedicated; the novelist , whose poetic image for her suicidal feelings gives its title and subject; ; or just a repeated poetic reference -- in a depiction of the drowning death of actress , there is the line "The wolf tone is sounding," and in the album's most personal song, celebrates romantic contentment by declaring, "No more am I the lone wolf under the evening star." The wolf therefore serves many functions in these songs, symbolizing independence, freedom, , depression, danger, and loneliness, among other things. It enables to address a variety of subjects, but it also lends her a certain distance from them. Usually, the songwriter employs the third person for the characters in these songs, and the "she" figure described is somewhat elusive. Like a wolf, you might say, she never sticks around long enough for the listener to draw a bead on her. ~ William Ruhlmann