Reviewer: Adam McKibbin ...review on the web

The Scoop: It’s a strange, ironic, hierarchical and oft-horrible thing, this indie music business. The cold truth of being an indie music reviewer is that about 95 times out of 100 the package from Matador or Merge or Barsuk or Saddle Creek is going to be better (on every level) than that hand-written package from the 87th dude this month who dropped you an e-mail about getting his stuff reviewed. Folks like Jenn Lindsay, then, provide reason (and reminder) to keep returning the e-mails and giving honest listens to every damned disc that comes in the mail. Because you never know. A true DIY renegade, Lindsay’s Fired! is one of 2003’s least commercial albums; a six-song album (EP?) that is a concept album about mundane jobs and unemployment. Fired! revolves around the sort of strummy, uber-aware folk that people talk about fondly but rarely request from the radio station. Included is the hip-hop Mother Goose of “Tick Tock,” an experiment that even cheeky self-awareness can’t save from the skip button. The rest of the album is a success; simple melodically but lifted by Lindsay’s compassionately incisive lyrics and her vaguely Joni-esque voice. She is a credit to the NYC music scene. Unfortunately, the Big Apple—forever brimming with the jobless and the indignant—will give Ms. Lindsay fodder for songs as long as she cares to keep her sympathetic eyes open.

Highlight Tracks: “Paper” and “A-List”