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All Music Guide
"Lullaby Baxter jettisons the quirky jazz approach that served her well on her first album in favor of a lush chamber pop sound that suits her sweet vocals and cheerfully daft lyrics perfectly ... A laid-back, layered masterpiece ... Every song has impeccably blended instrumentation, subtly dynamic shifts, and exactly the ornamentation ... that make these simple and charming melodies come to life. Baxter's breathy vocals ... recline upon these pillow-soft creations like a graceful seraph ... listening to the record on headphones is an almost unbearably intimate experience. Thanks to songs as memorable and flat-out lovely as "What's Wrong with You," "Cardboard Armoured Car," and "Dumptruck," though, it's an experience you'll want to have repeatedly. (4.5 out of 5 stars / The Best of 2006)"
I Heart Music
"[A] chanteuse with a beautiful voice ... Garden Cities of To-morrow is a wonderful blend of '70s soft-rock, Brill Building pop, showtunes and folk ... if you were to hear this not knowing who it was, you'd have a tough time guessing when it came from, let alone who made it. But, really, a big part of Lullaby Baxter's charm -- and undoubtedly part of the reason why it took her six years to make a second album -- is her obvious unwillingness to conform to identifiable genre lines. Hopefully we won't have to wait until sometime next decade to hear how she follows this up."
A Hand Clap in the Dark
"A retro sound with a dreamy sensibility ... sweetness and sincerity in her lyrics and voice ... very appealing."
Neufutur
"something that has not been heard since Petula Clark was selling millions of records. Baxter has so much talent that I was already sold on Garden Cities of To-morrow by the time that "Cardboard Armoured Car" ended. Find this album and pick it up as soon as possible."
Georgia Straight
"Lullaby Baxter fills Gardens with baroque-pop gems ... one of those records that takes the listener into an alternate world [it] shimmers with timeless moments"
PRI's The World (Global Hit)
"Lullaby Baxter was born as the sixties were ending. But her music would have sounded just as groovy in 1966 as it does now ... a veritable garden of lush sounds."
3Hive.com
"Lullaby Baxter is back with a new album. She'll smite you immediately with her sultry-smooth voice that lends a timelessness to her songs. Musically, she's a more straightforward Stereolab, slightly less whimsical, but equal in charm. Your life would be made all the more sweeter if Lullaby sung you to sleep every night."
Chromewaves
"The second album from Montreal's Lullaby Baxter sounds like the perfect soundtrack to a montage from a romantic comedy. Picture cycling through the countryside, baguette shopping, dancing in the park fountain. Though sung entirely in English, there's a definite Gallic feel to this record. Baxter's rich, lightly menthol-smoky voice sounds marvelous singing her breezily nonsensical lyrics atop the gentle, tasteful orchestration. Contemporarily timeless and equal parts pastoral folk and urban jazz, listening to this makes me want to wear a beret and go feed some pigeons."
Mote Magazine
"Ensure you pick this disc up, watch the videos, see her in concert, buy the t-shirt, and support Lullaby Baxter's eclectic circus."
Cuckoo in Harajuku
"Garden Cities of To-Morrow is subtle yet sentimental. "Little Song", which is truly a gem, epitomizes the record's charms. Highly recommended for fans of Camera Obscura, Aimee Mann, Kings of Convenience, the Weepies or BJ Thomas' 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head'."
Monkey Biz
"A voice that seeps into your soul ... genius ... this profound work of sound is not to be missed."
The XPN All About the Music Blog
"A gorgeous collection of jazz influenced pop songs."
Pitchfork
"Baxter's jazzy alto carries echoes of singers like Ella Fitzgerald ... standout "Sugar" opens with pulsing "I Am the Walrus" Mellotron before dissolving in country-rock lead guitar licks, delirious strings, whirling Wurlitzer, and ostinato bass line. A flute quartet, harp, timpani, marimba, and even djembe dress up other tracks in full Herculean garb, with Ennio Morricone's flair for the cinematic ... when Baxter matches her urbane oddities and Hercules' pastoral popscaping just right, it's like a stroll through leafy, tree-lined city blocks in early autumn twilight ... a masterwork of urban planning for a city out of an enchanted kingdom."
Harp
"Evoking the best of '60s soft-pop (Pet Sounds, Dionne Warwick, et al.) with a dash of folkie earnestness on the side, Baxter owns a sweetly self-effacing voice that allows her to wear profound sadness lightly. While the cotton-candy melodies and lazy tempos suggest a soothing vacation from harsh reality, Baxter is unpredictable around the edges ... amidst lovely strings and flutes, she tosses velvet barbs, cooing, "What's wrong with you?/Other than everything?" Don't be fooled by the airy manner: Lullaby Baxter is no airhead."
See
"Laid back, folky, orchestral quirk-pop for the Belle and Sebastian set, rooted in the hippie hangover of the '70s as well as the kind of '60s chanteuses who would share stages/body fluids with Serge Gainsbourg ... a lovely album from an interesting leftfielder."
Babysue
"On Garden Cities of To-morrow, the beautiful and intriguing Lullaby Baxter truly delivers ... Some artists merely sing and play instruments...while others give their listeners a real part of themselves. Lullaby falls into this latter category. Her music is so sincere and genuine that we were immediately affected. Light, airy, and instantly lovable, the tracks on this album are soft, soothing, and just slightly perplexing. With a voice as smooth as Jupiter and a personality as big as Mars, Lullaby Baxter is clearly on the path to artistic success ... highly recommended."
Suburban Horror
"I'd describe this as "nighttime music" ... her voice lulls you into a state of subconscious. It's gorgeous, it's soothing ... reminds me of someone I can't place- Let's settle at Ella Fitzgerald meets Natalie Merchant."
Chicago Free Press
"Capable Egg remains a longtime favorite of mine. Six years later [Lullaby Baxter] has returned with the equally sensational and unique Garden Cities of To-morrow."
Mog.com
"[Garden Cities of To-morrow] is my favorite CD of 2006 so far ... Baxter's silky, creamy tone agrees with my eardrums in every way ... It combines the richness of Peggy Lee with the immaculate phrasing and tone of Maxine Sullivan. No, I haven't deciphered what it is she singing about most of the time, but I know that the lyrics are never boring or even remotely conventional ... the arrangements are burbling with beautiful little details: string section flourishes, little horn comments, organs and Rhodeses, flutes and more ... I can't imagine not being delighted by it for the rest of my life."
AmpCamp
"[Lullaby Baxter] was made for this music ... every performance on Garden Cities of To-morrow is fantastic ... This record not only provides the initial joy of hearing it but it stands up to repeat listens. There is always something to discover: an instrument you missed, a witty lyric ... There is so much depth in just this little record. It comes completely out of left field that something like this would even exist ... Garden Cities of To-morrow is a wonderful place to visit."
Exclaim!
"With all the characteristics of master popsmiths like Burt Bacharach, Paul McCartney and the Carpenters, Lullaby Baxter has composed a wonderful, orchestral brew ... There is something cosmopolitan about Garden Cities of To-morrow. Baxter's voice is a lilting instrument, soft and bold with a bit of inherent reed buzz. The rich bounce of "What's Wrong with You?" contains a hint of Pet Sounds' ambition, while "Little Song" has the forlorn quality one might expect from Karen Carpenter. "Sugar" possesses the chops of the Band entertaining Bob Dylan and "Lord, I Won't Fight You Anymore" has the understated grace of '70s, Parisian pop."
Hour
"Whimsical and wise ... Perfect."
Eye Weekly
"Smokey-voiced, Rufus-esque baroque pop ... sweetly written and affectionate."
The Province
"(Lullaby Baxter) approaches her songs like a French chanteuse. There is a fragile quality and understated sexuality common to many of the French pop singers, particularly during the late '60s. Yet there is as much a Burt Bacharach influence the way the horns and reeds are used and a suggestion of The Beatles or '60s Kinks. It's an attractive mix that lets her sometimes obscure lyricism breathe."
Now
"The brill-building-style production (gentle swoops of strings, Wurly organs, tasteful vibes and woodwinds, and fairy dust cascades of harp) is dead on ... The thing that makes Garden Cities such an engaging listen is the fact that the sogs sound so thoroughly developed. For all their whimsy, the offbeat, blue-eyed soul and Carpenters-pop tunes here have a deliberately calculated naïveté that works."
Tangible Sounds
"Lullaby Baxter: the name itself puts you in mind of colourful gardens, sweet smells, and particularly coy girls with long lashes and summer skirts. It comes as such a sweaty relief that Garden Cities of To-morrow lives up to its mother's name. It has everything you could want."
Pop Matters
"Lullaby Baxter has returned with a gorgeous little follow-up that mines everything from baroque pop, to Brill Building pop, to jazzy crooning, to '60s Bacharach, to the music of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and pulls it all off seamlessly. With a voice that sounds equal parts Dusty Springfield and Carole King, Baxter coos playful lyrics over a lush yet restrained musical backdrop produced by pop duo Hercules, and that combination of whimsical wordplay, sumptuous vocals, and classy arrangements is too earnest in its desire to win you over to resist its allure ... For all the press Cat Power's tidy pop album has received, folks might want to give this beguiling disc some attention as well."
Calgary Sun
"An overnight sensation ... Lulaby Baxter is hotly tipped to become a big contender in Canada's jazz and folk scenes."
All Music Guide
"Fus(ing) jazz, pop and cabaret with Baxter's smoky voice and creative lyrics ... Jazzy, sophisticated fairy tail's and fables are truly appealing and unique ... strikes the right balance between sincerity and wittiness"
HOUR
"I'll bet my press pass that after listening to this woman's pipes purr for a couple of short hours, you'll be jonesing for another set ... Touring her debut record cross-country, Lullaby's been collecting and charming new fans who are taken aback by the bare, buxom beauty of her voice (one critic recently likened her to Barbara)."
LE JOURNAL DE MONTREAL
"Her first album Capable Egg is irresistible and so is her show ... Lullaby Baxter Trio is one of the best finds at this year's Jazz Festival."
LA PRESSE
"Her songs procure a crazy sense of well-being ... she has an undeniable charm."
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE
"She sparkles with her sassy, smokey, understated delivery and hip lyrics ... [a] country-folk-lounge-pop phenom ... the big local discovery at this year's Montreal International Jazz Festival."
NOW TORONTO
"...Baxter veered from torchy ballads and subtle swing to stretched-out bossa nova ... Dead, dead cool."
TORONTO SUN
"A hickory-voiced Montreal singer ... smooth, accordion-laced jazz-folk ... Excellent."
GEORGIA STRAIGHT
"A window opening onto a world of knuckleheads, chatterboxes, and dingbat birdies ... loony and charming ... There's a touch of Astrud Gilberto's nonchalance in her sound, and also a hint of Billie Holiday heartbreak."
VANCOUVER COURIER
"Capable Egg, with its silly-sounding words and parallel-world atmosphere, is an antidote to the banal play list on AM or FM radio. It's music that makes you prick up your ears on first listen for its whacky word play, Baxter's smooth vocals and fanciful instrumentation ... it's music that's impossible to pigeonhole."
WINNIPEG SUN
"A witty, endearingly off-kilter vocalist ... one who writes spacey, bittersweet cocktail confections about roosters in love, hopscotch and snoring horseys, which she croons in a sweetly unvarnished voice ... Who does she think she is? ... The most enchanting, original songwriter we've heard in ages? The best new female artist of the year? Well, OK, she is."
UPTOWN MAGAZINE
"This jaunty collection of songs succeeds by never taking itself too seriously. And why should it? Mixing loungy spaciness, jazz, country twang and layered instrumentation with nonsensical, if not contextually irreverent, lyrics ... This egg is more than capable, baby, it flies."
GLOBE AND MAIL
"A strange little newborn ... a round-trip tour of a musical world that has always been with us, but never quite in this form. It has sounds that make you think of spit-curls on the foreheads of silent movie queens, bar stools in suburban basements, and nylons with visible seams down the back ... Baxter's melodies and the lyrics of Lutwidge Sedgwick (not his real name either) manage to seem both archaic and breezy, like photos of Jazz-Age kids whooping it up. But the ghosts on Capable Egg flit by with their faces covered. Baxter's warm, coffee-toned voice and her vocal inflections sometimes sound like she's evoking some forgotten twenties songbird, but then the picture dissolves, often within the same phrase. In the end she sounds like nobody except herself."
ICI
"Absolutely irresistible ... A gem from beginning to end."
MONTREAL MIRROR
"At the core of this stellar debut album (from a neophyte, no less) is one of those proverbially 'smoky' voices - raised on Sarah Vaughn but applied here to some highly original ditties that play fast and lovely loose with a carnival of styles (and I do mean carnival - be it Rio or New Orleans) ... There's a lot of world-weariness lurking in the playground of songs like 'Ding-A-Ling' and 'Mr. Powder-Blue Breadbox', but then, this album is a dream."
Q MAGAZINE
"Polka, country, vaudeville, lounge and folk are twisted together into something approaching k.d. lang's wistful elegance ... Song titles such as 'Mr. Powder-Blue Breadbox' and 'Horsey Don't Snore' underline the offbeat lyrics, the trio mining some kind of arcane Americana with touches of Van Dyke Parks. A tough trick to pull off, but Baxter and Co. succeed in carving their own niche."
LES INROCKUPTIBLES (FRANCE)
"The unexpected Easter egg found in the Garden of Eden."
THE VILLAGE VOICE
"Baxter sings sweet 'n' goofy songs pitched midway between insinuating nursery rhymes and a sort of off-kilter feminine sophistication you might once have run across in places like Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel ... Characters like Mr. Powder-Blue Breadbox, Morty-Mort-Morton Showstopper Calhoun, and Knucklehead populate songs evoking the animated furniture of '40s cartoons ... but it's Baxter's beautiful, buttery-warm voice that carries the day ... She's the capable egg of the title, and that's no yolk."
CMJ
"Truly a treasure."
"Lullaby Baxter jettisons the quirky jazz approach that served her well on her first album in favor of a lush chamber pop sound that suits her sweet vocals and cheerfully daft lyrics perfectly ... A laid-back, layered masterpiece ... Every song has impeccably blended instrumentation, subtly dynamic shifts, and exactly the ornamentation ... that make these simple and charming melodies come to life. Baxter's breathy vocals ... recline upon these pillow-soft creations like a graceful seraph ... listening to the record on headphones is an almost unbearably intimate experience. Thanks to songs as memorable and flat-out lovely as "What's Wrong with You," "Cardboard Armoured Car," and "Dumptruck," though, it's an experience you'll want to have repeatedly. (4.5 out of 5 stars / The Best of 2006)"
I Heart Music
"[A] chanteuse with a beautiful voice ... Garden Cities of To-morrow is a wonderful blend of '70s soft-rock, Brill Building pop, showtunes and folk ... if you were to hear this not knowing who it was, you'd have a tough time guessing when it came from, let alone who made it. But, really, a big part of Lullaby Baxter's charm -- and undoubtedly part of the reason why it took her six years to make a second album -- is her obvious unwillingness to conform to identifiable genre lines. Hopefully we won't have to wait until sometime next decade to hear how she follows this up."
A Hand Clap in the Dark
"A retro sound with a dreamy sensibility ... sweetness and sincerity in her lyrics and voice ... very appealing."
Neufutur
"something that has not been heard since Petula Clark was selling millions of records. Baxter has so much talent that I was already sold on Garden Cities of To-morrow by the time that "Cardboard Armoured Car" ended. Find this album and pick it up as soon as possible."
Georgia Straight
"Lullaby Baxter fills Gardens with baroque-pop gems ... one of those records that takes the listener into an alternate world [it] shimmers with timeless moments"
PRI's The World (Global Hit)
"Lullaby Baxter was born as the sixties were ending. But her music would have sounded just as groovy in 1966 as it does now ... a veritable garden of lush sounds."
3Hive.com
"Lullaby Baxter is back with a new album. She'll smite you immediately with her sultry-smooth voice that lends a timelessness to her songs. Musically, she's a more straightforward Stereolab, slightly less whimsical, but equal in charm. Your life would be made all the more sweeter if Lullaby sung you to sleep every night."
Chromewaves
"The second album from Montreal's Lullaby Baxter sounds like the perfect soundtrack to a montage from a romantic comedy. Picture cycling through the countryside, baguette shopping, dancing in the park fountain. Though sung entirely in English, there's a definite Gallic feel to this record. Baxter's rich, lightly menthol-smoky voice sounds marvelous singing her breezily nonsensical lyrics atop the gentle, tasteful orchestration. Contemporarily timeless and equal parts pastoral folk and urban jazz, listening to this makes me want to wear a beret and go feed some pigeons."
Mote Magazine
"Ensure you pick this disc up, watch the videos, see her in concert, buy the t-shirt, and support Lullaby Baxter's eclectic circus."
Cuckoo in Harajuku
"Garden Cities of To-Morrow is subtle yet sentimental. "Little Song", which is truly a gem, epitomizes the record's charms. Highly recommended for fans of Camera Obscura, Aimee Mann, Kings of Convenience, the Weepies or BJ Thomas' 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head'."
Monkey Biz
"A voice that seeps into your soul ... genius ... this profound work of sound is not to be missed."
The XPN All About the Music Blog
"A gorgeous collection of jazz influenced pop songs."
Pitchfork
"Baxter's jazzy alto carries echoes of singers like Ella Fitzgerald ... standout "Sugar" opens with pulsing "I Am the Walrus" Mellotron before dissolving in country-rock lead guitar licks, delirious strings, whirling Wurlitzer, and ostinato bass line. A flute quartet, harp, timpani, marimba, and even djembe dress up other tracks in full Herculean garb, with Ennio Morricone's flair for the cinematic ... when Baxter matches her urbane oddities and Hercules' pastoral popscaping just right, it's like a stroll through leafy, tree-lined city blocks in early autumn twilight ... a masterwork of urban planning for a city out of an enchanted kingdom."
Harp
"Evoking the best of '60s soft-pop (Pet Sounds, Dionne Warwick, et al.) with a dash of folkie earnestness on the side, Baxter owns a sweetly self-effacing voice that allows her to wear profound sadness lightly. While the cotton-candy melodies and lazy tempos suggest a soothing vacation from harsh reality, Baxter is unpredictable around the edges ... amidst lovely strings and flutes, she tosses velvet barbs, cooing, "What's wrong with you?/Other than everything?" Don't be fooled by the airy manner: Lullaby Baxter is no airhead."
See
"Laid back, folky, orchestral quirk-pop for the Belle and Sebastian set, rooted in the hippie hangover of the '70s as well as the kind of '60s chanteuses who would share stages/body fluids with Serge Gainsbourg ... a lovely album from an interesting leftfielder."
Babysue
"On Garden Cities of To-morrow, the beautiful and intriguing Lullaby Baxter truly delivers ... Some artists merely sing and play instruments...while others give their listeners a real part of themselves. Lullaby falls into this latter category. Her music is so sincere and genuine that we were immediately affected. Light, airy, and instantly lovable, the tracks on this album are soft, soothing, and just slightly perplexing. With a voice as smooth as Jupiter and a personality as big as Mars, Lullaby Baxter is clearly on the path to artistic success ... highly recommended."
Suburban Horror
"I'd describe this as "nighttime music" ... her voice lulls you into a state of subconscious. It's gorgeous, it's soothing ... reminds me of someone I can't place- Let's settle at Ella Fitzgerald meets Natalie Merchant."
Chicago Free Press
"Capable Egg remains a longtime favorite of mine. Six years later [Lullaby Baxter] has returned with the equally sensational and unique Garden Cities of To-morrow."
Mog.com
"[Garden Cities of To-morrow] is my favorite CD of 2006 so far ... Baxter's silky, creamy tone agrees with my eardrums in every way ... It combines the richness of Peggy Lee with the immaculate phrasing and tone of Maxine Sullivan. No, I haven't deciphered what it is she singing about most of the time, but I know that the lyrics are never boring or even remotely conventional ... the arrangements are burbling with beautiful little details: string section flourishes, little horn comments, organs and Rhodeses, flutes and more ... I can't imagine not being delighted by it for the rest of my life."
AmpCamp
"[Lullaby Baxter] was made for this music ... every performance on Garden Cities of To-morrow is fantastic ... This record not only provides the initial joy of hearing it but it stands up to repeat listens. There is always something to discover: an instrument you missed, a witty lyric ... There is so much depth in just this little record. It comes completely out of left field that something like this would even exist ... Garden Cities of To-morrow is a wonderful place to visit."
Exclaim!
"With all the characteristics of master popsmiths like Burt Bacharach, Paul McCartney and the Carpenters, Lullaby Baxter has composed a wonderful, orchestral brew ... There is something cosmopolitan about Garden Cities of To-morrow. Baxter's voice is a lilting instrument, soft and bold with a bit of inherent reed buzz. The rich bounce of "What's Wrong with You?" contains a hint of Pet Sounds' ambition, while "Little Song" has the forlorn quality one might expect from Karen Carpenter. "Sugar" possesses the chops of the Band entertaining Bob Dylan and "Lord, I Won't Fight You Anymore" has the understated grace of '70s, Parisian pop."
Hour
"Whimsical and wise ... Perfect."
Eye Weekly
"Smokey-voiced, Rufus-esque baroque pop ... sweetly written and affectionate."
The Province
"(Lullaby Baxter) approaches her songs like a French chanteuse. There is a fragile quality and understated sexuality common to many of the French pop singers, particularly during the late '60s. Yet there is as much a Burt Bacharach influence the way the horns and reeds are used and a suggestion of The Beatles or '60s Kinks. It's an attractive mix that lets her sometimes obscure lyricism breathe."
Now
"The brill-building-style production (gentle swoops of strings, Wurly organs, tasteful vibes and woodwinds, and fairy dust cascades of harp) is dead on ... The thing that makes Garden Cities such an engaging listen is the fact that the sogs sound so thoroughly developed. For all their whimsy, the offbeat, blue-eyed soul and Carpenters-pop tunes here have a deliberately calculated naïveté that works."
Tangible Sounds
"Lullaby Baxter: the name itself puts you in mind of colourful gardens, sweet smells, and particularly coy girls with long lashes and summer skirts. It comes as such a sweaty relief that Garden Cities of To-morrow lives up to its mother's name. It has everything you could want."
Pop Matters
"Lullaby Baxter has returned with a gorgeous little follow-up that mines everything from baroque pop, to Brill Building pop, to jazzy crooning, to '60s Bacharach, to the music of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and pulls it all off seamlessly. With a voice that sounds equal parts Dusty Springfield and Carole King, Baxter coos playful lyrics over a lush yet restrained musical backdrop produced by pop duo Hercules, and that combination of whimsical wordplay, sumptuous vocals, and classy arrangements is too earnest in its desire to win you over to resist its allure ... For all the press Cat Power's tidy pop album has received, folks might want to give this beguiling disc some attention as well."
Calgary Sun
"An overnight sensation ... Lulaby Baxter is hotly tipped to become a big contender in Canada's jazz and folk scenes."
All Music Guide
"Fus(ing) jazz, pop and cabaret with Baxter's smoky voice and creative lyrics ... Jazzy, sophisticated fairy tail's and fables are truly appealing and unique ... strikes the right balance between sincerity and wittiness"
HOUR
"I'll bet my press pass that after listening to this woman's pipes purr for a couple of short hours, you'll be jonesing for another set ... Touring her debut record cross-country, Lullaby's been collecting and charming new fans who are taken aback by the bare, buxom beauty of her voice (one critic recently likened her to Barbara)."
LE JOURNAL DE MONTREAL
"Her first album Capable Egg is irresistible and so is her show ... Lullaby Baxter Trio is one of the best finds at this year's Jazz Festival."
LA PRESSE
"Her songs procure a crazy sense of well-being ... she has an undeniable charm."
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE
"She sparkles with her sassy, smokey, understated delivery and hip lyrics ... [a] country-folk-lounge-pop phenom ... the big local discovery at this year's Montreal International Jazz Festival."
NOW TORONTO
"...Baxter veered from torchy ballads and subtle swing to stretched-out bossa nova ... Dead, dead cool."
TORONTO SUN
"A hickory-voiced Montreal singer ... smooth, accordion-laced jazz-folk ... Excellent."
GEORGIA STRAIGHT
"A window opening onto a world of knuckleheads, chatterboxes, and dingbat birdies ... loony and charming ... There's a touch of Astrud Gilberto's nonchalance in her sound, and also a hint of Billie Holiday heartbreak."
VANCOUVER COURIER
"Capable Egg, with its silly-sounding words and parallel-world atmosphere, is an antidote to the banal play list on AM or FM radio. It's music that makes you prick up your ears on first listen for its whacky word play, Baxter's smooth vocals and fanciful instrumentation ... it's music that's impossible to pigeonhole."
WINNIPEG SUN
"A witty, endearingly off-kilter vocalist ... one who writes spacey, bittersweet cocktail confections about roosters in love, hopscotch and snoring horseys, which she croons in a sweetly unvarnished voice ... Who does she think she is? ... The most enchanting, original songwriter we've heard in ages? The best new female artist of the year? Well, OK, she is."
UPTOWN MAGAZINE
"This jaunty collection of songs succeeds by never taking itself too seriously. And why should it? Mixing loungy spaciness, jazz, country twang and layered instrumentation with nonsensical, if not contextually irreverent, lyrics ... This egg is more than capable, baby, it flies."
GLOBE AND MAIL
"A strange little newborn ... a round-trip tour of a musical world that has always been with us, but never quite in this form. It has sounds that make you think of spit-curls on the foreheads of silent movie queens, bar stools in suburban basements, and nylons with visible seams down the back ... Baxter's melodies and the lyrics of Lutwidge Sedgwick (not his real name either) manage to seem both archaic and breezy, like photos of Jazz-Age kids whooping it up. But the ghosts on Capable Egg flit by with their faces covered. Baxter's warm, coffee-toned voice and her vocal inflections sometimes sound like she's evoking some forgotten twenties songbird, but then the picture dissolves, often within the same phrase. In the end she sounds like nobody except herself."
ICI
"Absolutely irresistible ... A gem from beginning to end."
MONTREAL MIRROR
"At the core of this stellar debut album (from a neophyte, no less) is one of those proverbially 'smoky' voices - raised on Sarah Vaughn but applied here to some highly original ditties that play fast and lovely loose with a carnival of styles (and I do mean carnival - be it Rio or New Orleans) ... There's a lot of world-weariness lurking in the playground of songs like 'Ding-A-Ling' and 'Mr. Powder-Blue Breadbox', but then, this album is a dream."
Q MAGAZINE
"Polka, country, vaudeville, lounge and folk are twisted together into something approaching k.d. lang's wistful elegance ... Song titles such as 'Mr. Powder-Blue Breadbox' and 'Horsey Don't Snore' underline the offbeat lyrics, the trio mining some kind of arcane Americana with touches of Van Dyke Parks. A tough trick to pull off, but Baxter and Co. succeed in carving their own niche."
LES INROCKUPTIBLES (FRANCE)
"The unexpected Easter egg found in the Garden of Eden."
THE VILLAGE VOICE
"Baxter sings sweet 'n' goofy songs pitched midway between insinuating nursery rhymes and a sort of off-kilter feminine sophistication you might once have run across in places like Manhattan's Algonquin Hotel ... Characters like Mr. Powder-Blue Breadbox, Morty-Mort-Morton Showstopper Calhoun, and Knucklehead populate songs evoking the animated furniture of '40s cartoons ... but it's Baxter's beautiful, buttery-warm voice that carries the day ... She's the capable egg of the title, and that's no yolk."
CMJ
"Truly a treasure."
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