By Katie Hasty
Published: March 1st, 2006 | 12:00am

While Garrison Starr has touched on a number of genres and sub-genres since she first released records a decade ago, at the top sits pop. Country-pop, folk-pop, rock-pop, roots-pop, Starr holds down the pop fort with her newest, The Sound of You and Me.

Starr's pretty, natural voice has never sounded better and, ironically, the personal, post-break-up nature of the album is a happy welcome. However, while producer Neilson Hubbard is a stupendous musician and a generally good man with the mix, his heavy hand on The Sound of You and Me partly dilutes what might’ve otherwise been a raw, intimate experience. With reverb aplenty, more instruments than necessary, and a smattering of plain, vanilla songs, Starr's set sounds bigger than it is: "Kansas City, KS," as a country-tinged effort, can't rock like a Lucinda tune; "Big Enough" can't hurt like Patty Griffin.

Yes, yes, Garrison Starr is Garrison Starr and can't be anybody else, but consciously playing to her strengths could make even her tamest songs (of which there are many) ferocious without having to use too many bells and whistles. Starr shines best in country mode and having a strict country or folk-country album in the future would fit her nicely. As for this disc, "Pretending" is a beautiful, melancholy effort and "Sing It Like a Victim" is addictive in breadth and depth. The Sound of You and Me could have succeeded if the accompaniment were consistent with the over-arching theme of loneliness.