**1/2 Terra Deva

PULLED APART

(OM)

On her debut CD, San Francisco's Terra Deva feeds on Alanis Morissette's vocal techniques so aggressively that she risks distracting the listener from the ecstasy she displays in her nine self-penned songs (two of which are reprised as remixes). Fortunately, P. Scriver's disco-string arrangements, Europop echo effects, and sleazy bass beats lead Deva into a silky jazz world where her bright light soprano can shine coolly. Together they make slippery songs with long percussion breaks and synthesizer bridges across which Deva's vocals can soar, hover, or shimmer, sliding from beat to beat. What you read in the titles of her songs is beautifully what you get, be it "Inside," "Over It," "Pulled Apart," "Devastate," "Speak Low," or "Rain Rays," the CD's splashiest bit of glimmer. Other than her passion for Morissette, Deva never imitates, and she and Scriver never fall into cheap changes or cliché beats.

-- Michael Freedberg