This came out in 1999 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
With her earthy sexuality and boho sensibility, singer-songwriter Sophie B. Hawkins might strike you as a poo woman’s Liz Phair.
But the artist behind Damn, I Wish I Was Lover is very much her own woman on Timbre, her third disc. Along with playing most of the instruments once again, this time Hawkins also gets behind the board and handles the production. Even more impressive: She wears both hats with style and grace; Timbre’s 12 tracks manage to be both hummably commercial yet confessional and personal. Not to mention sensual in every regard — in the warm, exotic hand percussion that colours these tracks, in her honey-dripped voice that breathes in your ear, and most of all in the lyrics, which are erotic enough to justify the disc’s warning sticker. If Sophie keeps upping the ante like this, we’ll soon think of Phair as a poor woman’s Hawkins.
