Seemed Like A Good Idea : Petra Haden Sings Jesse Harris (2016)

"This is a peculiar and kind-of-wonderful recording, but one that even the most kindly disposed of listeners will have to warm up to. It is an album of a dozen pop songs written by an excellent songwriter (who is better known for being behind the scenes than for his own solo work) delivered by a singer who has made a career of disappearing into her material. The two leaders on this date, then, are both ghosts of a sort, beautiful but ethereal, easy to miss in the light of day. The result is a beautiful but somewhat too-cool set of tunes, carefully constructed and arranged, that never really take flight the way pop songs ought to. But give it a chance and it just might haunt you. This is exquisite chamber rock. It is organic, free-range, artisanal pop music. If kale salad were to take on the character of jazz-inflected songwriting, it would be Seemed Like a Good Idea." (popmatters.com)