Belly Star

Belly Star

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Tanya Donelly's songwriting began to blossom on Throwing Muses' Real Ramona, and Belly's debut, Star, is where it reaches fruition. Using the trancy harmonies of dream pop as a foundation, Donelly expands the genre's boundaries, trimming away its pretensions and incorporating a flair for sweet, concise pop hooks and folk-rock inflections. She also spikes her airy melodies with disarmingly disturbing lyrics. Images of betrayal and death float throughout the album, but what hits home initially -- and what stays after the album is finished -- are the hooks, whether it's the rolling singalong of "Gepetto," the surging "Slow Dog," the melancholy "Stay," or the cool, detached sexiness of "Feed the Tree."