All summer I listened to Anaïs Mitchell’s second record, Hymns for the Exiled, trying to figure out the mysterious quality in her singing and writing that is particularly noticeable in songs like Cosmic American and Two Kids. Her voice is not conventionally beautiful in the way people find Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston amazing vocal abilities pleasing.  You cannot listen an entire summer to the same record of these two popular chart toppers, but I can attest that you can listen to Anaïs Mitchell. It is the somewhat rugged and vulnerable quality of her voice that keeps you interested in exploring the different regions charted by eleven songs on the record.  Most records only have one or two good songs. This one has ten.  The lyrics of Orion are so private that the song would have worked better if the melody had played a larger role in the listener’s experience and universalized the sense of loss touched upon in words about a complete stranger. Listen to Samples from CD      Order CD at Amazon.com