"Not Going Anywhere" is Keren Ann's 3rd record, Her first in English. The first to get a US release. And it's about time.

As the Israeli - French artist is one of the best singer-songwriters in the world today. Her delicate singing, is strong and powerful as if she was screaming. A perfect writer, Keren Ann molds her songs like little sad diamonds and then adds a lot by whispering them to your ear.

Think a modern Francoise Hardy, with a touch of nick Drake.

If you loved Joni Mitchel and Suzan Vega, If you adore Damien Rice, Rufus Wainwright and Tom Mcrae, if you went to see Simon and Garfunkel live this summer - Keren Ann is your next best friend.

Get her before the hype.

She is the new Nora Jones minus the Nutrasweet.

There's no one like Keren Ann - in this century anyway. Her singing style might be best described as "softspoken", pun intended, but the overall effect is mesmerizing, soothing... I slightly prefer "Nolita" over this effort, that CD is darker, haunting, but this is also very very good. The title track, with its ironic but key "This is why I always whisper" lyric (it really is like listening to a whisper to a scream) sets the tone and the rest of the disc just sails along. Other standout tracks that keep the mellow spell intact - By The Cathedral, Polly, Sit In the Sun... heck, theyre all good, if in pretty much the same mode (except Sailor & Widow, which seems destined for an off-Broadway musical somewhere).

Having seen her live I got the feeling I was in Paris in 1935, listening to a sexy lounge singer coo her way through a series of unfamiliar torch songs, accompanied by an antique guitar, a piano, a french horn and 2 strings. That description might not sound all that great, but somehow, in todays world of WT hip-hop and screaming death metal, it really, really works.

Keren Ann is a talented musician who definitely has carved a niche of her own in the music landscape.

Keren Ann (Zeidel) assures us in the first tune on this amazing CD that she's not going anywhere, and she closes her effort by asking her listeners to follow her. Maybe, after you play the CD a few times (and you need to hear it more than once), you'll be glad she's promised to stick around. And maybe you'll be wanting to follow along as she embarks upon what looks like a bright career, too.

This French-Israeli chanteuse, singing in English for the first time (she was recently profiled in "The New Yorker" magazine, which is where I first learned of her) is, well . . . hard to say exactly. Folkie? Too edgy. Pop? Not hardly! New age? I don't think so. Jazz? Umm no. Unclassifiable? Well I guess.

In any case: Her tunes flow seamlessly on, sometimes soothing, sometimes scaring. Sometimes there are horns. Highlights, in addition to the opening and closing cuts would be "By the Cathedral," the chilling "End of May," and one of the most amazing songs I've ever heard, "Sailor and Widow," which has a strange galumphing minor-key march tempo. Its incendiary verses tumble out of Keren's mouth half spoken half sung (forget trying to follow along with the lyric sheet--wait till it's over and go back and check it out then) while she sings the chorus in a deadpan alto that is, on the grittiness scale, somewhere between Suzanne Vega and Kristin Hersh.

If you give it a chance, odds are it'll be on your CD player for quite awhile.

This is a bit on the melancholy side. I liked it. I like to expand my horizons and I truly cherished the uniqueness in this piece. On a lonely night, or a dark and dreary day this will extend the mood into infinitum

Basically if you loved Simon and Garfunkel or Joan Baez or Happy Rhodes or Fiona Apple or Norah Jones etc...or if you are simply a touch too old for the loudness and disco tempos of contemporary bubblegummers like Britney and the rest of the media circus queens - go get this album and enjoy. It's very unpresuming and will not kill your eardrums even when you have your headphones on... and the music itself is very very good, slow and thoughtful. IMHO, this is better than Norah Jones, and I am not kidding you. Title track, "End of May" and "By the Cathedral" are a bit similar but beautiful songs, "Sailor & Widow" has some very catchy and jumpy funk to it.. only a couple of songs do not immediatley grab your listening attention and this is an extremely high percentage from my point of view which deserves five stars.