** Dot Allison

AFTERGLOW

(Arista)

The cover of Afterglow features a shot of sulking songstress Dot Allison casting her sad eyes down toward the ground, her hair obscuring most of her face in a way that reveals little detail but conveys a somber mood. Which is a pretty accurate indication of what's inside. Having spent time earlier this decade singing with bottom-heavy, relatively up-tempo British dubcats One Dove, Allison has set out to create a more appropriate home for her dreamy, ethereal vocals on Afterglow, her solo debut. She co-wrote and co-produced all of the material, which features a roughly 50/50 split between down-tempo, trip-hoppy tracks more suited for the bedroom than the dance floor and beatless ballads that highlight her alluring voice. Reverb-laden guitars gently weep over plaintive lyrics about lost love and loneliness in "Tomorrow Never Comes." The other standout slow jam, "Did I Imagine You?", zeroes in on an irresistible melody that echoes amid a colossal number of multi-tracked, whispery vocals, creating an otherworldly effect that wouldn't sound out of place on an Enya album.

-- Kembrew McLeod