Eleni Mandell

Yellow day, afternoon/Heavy heat turns cool, Eleni Mandell sings on the last song of her fifth and best album, the new Afternoon. She could be describing the effect her voice has on her own sultry songs. The music -- played for the first time on a Mandell recording by her touring band and produced without fuss (but not without detail) by guitarist Joshua Grange -- is all summery stillness. Highway grit clings to the drum brushes, and Grange's pedal steel shimmers like a mirage. But Mandell's coy delivery chills Afternoon -- it's an air-conditioned parlor compared with the heat-buckled front porches of her past albums. But the results are far from frigid; we're talking cathouse parlor, not The House of Mirth. On an album about escape, Mandell sounds equally seductive as aggressor (I am a tiger, and I love to kill what I eat, she sings on the chops-licking "Dangerous") and in retreat ("Say Goodbye"). Live, she's a dose of summer vacation in any season -- but temperatures at her shows only go up.