"I think we're alone now/ There doesn't seem to be anyone a-rah-ound/ I think we're alone now/ The beating of our hearts is the only sah-ound."

--Tiffany (covering some 60's singer I can't be bothered to look up)

If you like your Tiffanies less saccharine than that, but only slightly, then Anders is the Tiffany for you. Not to say that it's all sweet going here. Funny Cry Happy Gift takes the cloying edge off Anders' sugary, sometimes grating pipes by adding a heap of desert sand and set props from spaghetti Westerns. This should come as no surprise. Anders is the talented progeny of filmmaker Allison Anders, known for, among other works, Gas Food Lodging, the early-90's film about slow-mo life in a miserable New Mexico highway town. In addition to Ione Sky and Fairuza Balk, the film featured a cameo by Dinosaur Jr's J Mascis. And wouldn't you know; Funny Cry Happy Gift also features flashes of J Mascis, this time mostly in a percussive capacity.

Lest you infer some sort of Dubya-esque favor-currying on the part of Anders Sr for her daughter, it should be mentioned that Tiffany befriended Mascis on her own, unaided, at the age of 14. Legend has it, she wrote a fan letter to the then-svelte guitar hero to which Mascis graciously responded. As if by magic, a friendship and creative relationship was born.

But we're not done name-dropping yet! Anders, a native of Los Angeles' Echo Park neighborhood, spent several years in Seattle, exploring its music scene before tiring of the social homogeny. New York was her next, and most fruitful stop. While playing out at clubs, Anders caught the attention of PJ Harvey. When Anders' asked Harvey to produce her debut full-length, Harvey agreed much to Anders' delight.

With all that fame and talent hanging around, you'd expect some spectacular results. The truth about the product is considerably less lustrous than that. Fortunately, the loss in shine is made up for in grit. "Person I Knew," the lead-off track and the album's finest moment, showcases all that's good and moving in Anders' musical world: lush, interesting chords, multi-tracked vocals, smart instrumentation, and a gripping melody. Her voice can become tiresome, due to its sharp, brittle quality, but she's usually able to mitigate her shortcomings by layering the vocal tracks and thickening things up with gorgeous harmonies.

The feel of Funny Cry Happy Gift is distinctly Western, or as my friend Ivan might say, "dusty." The thick, choking melancholia that pervades Anders' music is definitely mesquite-flavored, scarred by lasso-burns and spur marks, and branded in the ass with a big C for "corny." But there are worse things, as Anders too convincingly proves. After all, for a Los Angeleno-to-NYC transplant to put out 40+ minutes of dark cowboy ballads, replete with distorted slide-guitar accompaniment, is a foolhardy proposition in theory. The actuality works surprisingly well.

"Here I Forget" is the best paced of the ten tracks. While several songs lose some of their momentum and lack discernable arcs, this one builds to a palpably tense finish. "I See How Much Has Changed" is the most maudlin and silly of the bunch, and still, that's not enough to sink it. Imagine if they made another installation in the Young Guns series, bringing the heavily brat-packed, B-list original cast back for another try, only this time in present day New York City. This would be the pefect background music for a shot of Kiefer Sutherland's Doc character and Lou Diamond Phillip's Chavez walking down the Bowery in chaps and tasseled leather vests looking for a bordello. Did I mention PJ sings background vocals on this one? And that J Mascis has a bit part as well? Star-studded!

"Summer Gold" is representative of Anders' weaker material. The song sounds rather rote and leans too heavily in the direction of Alannah Myles' "Black Velvet." Harvey's harmonies on this track prove, pretty definitively, that no amount of star-shine can polish a turd. "Concrete Like Quicksand" is an interesting mix of "works" and "flops." Tiffany's voice is at its most grating here, but her melody, interestingly enough, is one of her best, and the chords are appropriately bittersweet and unresolved.

High profile friends (I imagine) are mixed blessings, especially for someone in Anders' position. While it must have been a treat to have the help-- both technical and personal-- of an esteemed somebody like PJ Harvey, and the musical input of an icon like J Mascis, the weight of those names could do her more harm than good. This album is bursting with potential, so it's a shame that it might be unfairly dismissed for its imperfections, owing to the unrealistic standards those high-gloss names sort of imply. Anders' songwriting is no fluke and, as she finds her own stylistic voice, she could become a real force.

-Camilo Arturo Leslie