Consistent. It is a strong word and compliment that everyone would like to be associated with, no matter what they do in life. Throughout veteran Seattle musician and ex-Hammerbox and Goodness singer Carrie Akre's career, the music she released has almost always drawn excellent reviews, even if label troubles prevented it from getting the wider audiences that such praise would normally deserve.

So after a five-year break, Carrie Akre is back with a new record and new label - as of August - to support it (Loveless Records). Titled Last The Evening, her third solo CD continues a strong string of releases that include 2000's Home and 2002's Invitation, both of which were released on her own label, My Way Records.

This time around, Akre brought in another well-respected figure of the Northwest music scene, Steve Fisk, who has produced the likes of Screaming Trees, Nirvana and The Posies. He has worked with bands that are very much guitar-oriented as well as more varied outfits like Soul Coughing. And though there is plenty of guitar work on Last The Evening, much of it is piano-based, which is different for Carrie Akre.

"Last The Evening" (the title track) is a dynamic waltz-y piano ballad that really gets going during the refrains, where Akre's incredibly soulful, bluesy piano and vocals instincts take over. The equally inspired track that follows, "Half Shelf Life," is more free-form in arrangement during the verses, then launches into a classic '50s-like romp, completed with a buzzing bass and bluesy vocals.

Many songs, like "Breathe," "Trafalgar Square" and many others act as self-therapy for Akre, who wrote these songs when she was at a low point in her career. Whether singing about "being taken advantage of" in "Half Shelf Life" or being "down in despair" in "Trafalgar Square," she tries to take on a cup-half-full mentality about life by song's end. And thank goodness for her sake, these songs reflect the overcoming of her struggles and sound uplifting, instead of bitter.