Back in the early 90s, there was an album called Pink Mischief by a singer named Jeanette Katt.  The album was a wonderfully catchy pop/rock disk with some racy lyrics that would make Liz Phair blush.  The record barely caused a ripple, but it was a fascinating and brazen look at the sex habits of the time.

Now you may be wondering why I'm talking about Jeanette Katt in a review for Kelly Buchanan's Bastard Daughter.  Perhaps it is unfair, but I have to say that Bastard Daughter reminds me a lot of that earlier CD.  It is a wonderfully hooky and starkly confessional look at being a modern woman.  I don't know if Bastard Daughter will get any more notice than Pink Mischief, but the new CD does deserve a following (as does the older album, but I'm afraid that ship has already sailed...)

Now one thing has to be made quite clear here, while Bastard Daughter is open with its sexuality, it is not brazenly titillating like, oh say, "Candy Shop" by 50 Cent or songs by many other rap artists.  When Buchanan sings, "You are not just a one night stand/like I wish I could say you were," in "Letter In Your Mailbox," you can tell that this is a person who takes her relationships and sex seriously – even more than she expects sometimes.  She is not willing to be used, she will be the user, and then she will "wash my sheets of your scent and your stain" as she puts it in "No Vacancy."  She can sometimes be a little judgmental both to the guys and the gals, calling the protagonist of her punk-inspired one-chord-wonder "Piggyback Ann" a whore.  However, she always knows who she is and always keeps the upper hand and always demands respect, explaining in "Body Bag" that "my pussy is priceless."

Musically, Buchanan has a tendency for rocking out, sometimes in a vaguely poppish way – think Avril Lavigne with bite and an adult vocabulary.  There are a few songs that could become hits if radio programmers were more adventurous, like the atmospheric "Cocaine" or the slamming "Volcano Lover" or the surprisingly catchy "Letter In Your Mailbox."