Jonatha Brooke, it appears, much like her kindred sister Patty Larken, are never going to gain the commercial recognition either of them deserve. My introduction to Jonatha was through her 1997 Masterpiece 10 Cent Wings and from there I went back and became acquainted with her previous work including the early days as half of the "Story." In 1991 legendary producer Bob Clearmountain sacrificed his usual high-digit salary for a chance to produce Steady Pull which, I think, matched the strength of Wings - though it was clearly written and produced with an eye toward the kind of mainstream airplay that Shawn Colvin spun into gold with A Few Small Repairs.

Alas, such was not the case, but Steady Pull was nonetheless a winner trading in a bit of Brooke's quirkiness for a more straight-forward pop approach that I think succeeded at least from the stand-point of her fans.
Though Clearwater and Mitchell Froom make small contributions to Back In The Circus, this new one marks the first time that Jonatha has more-or-less produced herself and the result is kind of a mixed bag.

Jonatha's stuff, in my opinion, has always been a bit over-produced - her guitar mastery, song-writing and vocals are more than enough to carry her. I keep hoping she'll release an album where the production is pared back and spare, perhaps more like what Mary Chapin-Carpenter did with Stones in the Road. With a few notable exceptions, Back in the Circus suffers from too much studio-voodio. There's a lot of superfluous drum programming that all-but ruin the lovely obsessive-compulsive ode to the broken heart "Sleeping With the Light On," and her cover of "Fire and Rain" sounds like an arrangement Taylor made for Britney Spears. However things look up from here.

The title track gets the album out of the gates in fine form and her cover of Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows" does what cover songs should do - reinvent the song to some extent, which she does using a whispery soft vocal that makes the tune sound like something Juliana Hatfield might have written on Beautiful Creatures. As for the third and last cover it is without question the show-stopper (it is the last track on the record and the best) the lovely "Eye In the Sky," from the long forgotten, but nonetheless brilliant Alan Parsons. She takes this song and makes it her own and brings it to life like you never imagined possible. You'll find yourself thinking, "oh yea, I remember this song - but I don't remember it being the greatest song ever written," it's that magical of a rendition and quite worth the price of the entire record.

Overall, Back in the Circus only offers 8 new tracks from Jonatha and I'd say only five of those are up to her standards of excellence. Still with the two fantastic covers it merits a good 3 and 1/2 out of 5 and a tentative thumbs up.