Barber's arresting lyrics set her apart from the smooth

Living as we are in the Norah Jones-Diana Krall 'smooth jazz' era, it isn't easy for a talent such as Patricia Barber's to get a hearing.

She shares a label with Jones, and also sings and plays the piano, but there the resemblance ends. Live: A Fortnight in France has been issued with none of the fanfare that accompanied Feels Like Home, although it's a much better album.

The more you hear Jones - and this year it has been impossible not to - the less there appears to be to her, but Barber repays repeated listening richly. There's a lot going on here. The compositions are searching and ambitious, the lyrics quirky and arresting, and the musicianship of her quartet impeccable.

In fairness, unlike Jones, and to a lesser extent Krall, Barber is no ingenue. She made her recorded debut in 1989 with Split, but only really began to hit her stride 10 years ago with 1994's Cafe Blue. She is often compared to Joni Mitchell, and to some extent the cap fits.

While Krall invited the comparison by covering Black Crow earlier this year on Girl in the Other Room, Barber more subtly alludes lyrically to the same song in White World - a musically taut, aggressive performance from a forthcoming song-cycle based on the ancient Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses.

It's an adventurous piece of songwriting, and raises high expectations for the rest of the cycle. There are shades of Mitchell, but I was also reminded of Gil Scott Heron and David Byrne.