In her 21 year recording career as the lead singer of Throwing Muses, 50 Foot Wave and as a solo artist, Kristin Hersh has never made a dud of an album and Learn To Sing Like A Star is no different. Usually her solo work is more acoustic and string oriented while the two bands she fronts are harder rocking, but Learn To Sing is a nice mix of both styles, even though the sticker on the front of the package calls this a "full-band acoustic recording."

Album opener "In Shock" is the best song on the album as far as the mixture of the two styles go; it's epic, powerful and one of the best tunes in Hersh's career, solo or otherwise. "Day Glo" features those gruff Hersh vocals front and center that any fan of hers has grown accustomed to and "Under The Gun" shows that Hersh is still quite the spectacular guitar player when she chooses to be. Learn To Sing falters a bit in the middle due to three instrumental tracks that don't quite fit with the rest of the album, but by the tail end Learn To Sing fires on all cylinders. "Wild Vanilla" to me sounds like a mellower Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" and closing track "The Thin Man" is the one quiet track here that gets it right one hundred percent without being overly melodramatic. While Learn To Sing doesn't live up to past classics such as the Muses' Real Ramona or Hersh's solo debut Hips and Makers, it's still a worthwhile addition to the collections of fans of this prolific College-Rock veteran.