It seems like anytime an artist or band puts out a self-titled record two or three albums into their career, it is a pretty good sign that this is the sort of music they would've liked to have been doing all along if they'd had it their way. Certainly the case here. Naess, the daughter of Arne Naess (once married to Diana Ross) has found her way from Britain, to New York and now LA. -where the great Ethan Johns has shepherded her into musical pastures that better suit her strengths.

Leona would be very near the intersection of a line drawn between Norah Jones and Edie Brickell. This cycle of songs about broken hearts and hearts broken are set to simple, mostly acoustic backdrops that allow her tarnished-angel, smoky-alto musings to take center stage. For the most part she acquits herself pretty well here, one highlight comes on the melancholy track "Star Signs" where she confesses to still reading her ex-lover's astrological forecast. Unfortunately a lot of the material on this record isn't quite strong enough to elevate her above the field of also-rans that populate this genre. The sound of the record really works well, but most of the tracks run together like different chapters of the same song and there just isn't one that really knocks you out. Still it's good enough to guarantee that she'll live to fight another day.