I just don't trust good-looking blonde singers anymore. If sincere you don't know if they've been prepackaged to merely sound like they give a damn.

So it is with Jenny Queen. I'm told that's her real last name - but then music fans are told a lot of s***. Remember, Britney spears was a virgin into her 20s, too. Riiiiight.

Then there's the Nudies Rodeo Tailors graphic and the fingers-touching-lips, pose.

And she pouts on the cover, sitting in the corner. Inside, her belly button shows (I'm not complaining, merely observing). And the album's titled "girls who cry need cake."

All the danger signs that say "looks good, music bad" are in evidence.

But I like Jewel, so i think of her as "Drowning Slowly" starts the proceedings. For many reasons this comparison sticks.

Jenny Queen lives in Australia. You wouldn't know that, unless you were told. So I'm telling. Jewel is from Alaska. Similar vast wastelands, each with about 90 percent of the population centered in three places. Both have aborigines who were there first.

Queen is older, 26 or so, than those who aspire to "pop." And, with Sam Shinazzi, writes her own songs as well. Did I mention we're told Jenny Queen is her real name?

I like what I'm hearing so I want to believe. Inexplicably - and maybe I'm getting sleepy, but I hear traces of The Smiths, The Sisters of Mercy and the Spice Girls. No, relax, I'm joking about the Spice Girls.

These pictures all over may not be her, I suddenly realize. Unlikely, but, well, frankly, people who look like this usually don't write songs that tell compelling stand-alone mini-chapters of real life.

I expect she's heard that before.

Ah, and then there's that look on the back page of the CD jacket, a trio of straw cowboy hats and she's under one, looking like a cross between Ellen Barkin, Cameron Diaz and Sandra Bernhardt.

Which is another way of saying, she seems sincere. This is good. In fact, her dark roots are showing I just noticed. Let's hope I'm not just letting the sultry voice sway me. I want another album. i want to find out whether what seems is what is.

Sincerely,

Temple Stark