Krista Detor’s ‘Suites’ have room to explore

“CHOCOLATE PAPER SUITES,” Krista Detor (Tightrope)

Complicated women with great voices and wild imaginations aren’t in demand nearly as much as sassy pop tarts. Perhaps there’s a subliminal correlation between “deep” and “going off the deep end” that keeps the mainstream in shallow waters, safe from the threat of profundity.

By that measure, Krista Detor could terrify the masses because the rabbit hole that is her “Chocolate Paper Suites” potentially goes to infinity.

Even the structure of the hour-long release is complex — 15 songs divided into five suites, stringing together a broad story arc about restlessness, breakdowns and rebirth, among other things. Detor’s lyrics are evocatively poetic — and profuse, with line after line running together faster than they can be absorbed. It’s oranges falling from the sky one minute, an argument with Charles Darwin the next.

The sound adds even more dimensions to the mind-trip. Arrangements are layered in Americana, folk and jazz and segued with surprising continuity. Although Detor anchors many tracks with her piano (stark and resonant), others jangle with acoustic guitar and nuance coming and going by way of saxophone, dulcimer and banjo. Then there’s Detor’s superb voice, as rich and throaty as Sarah McLachlan’s, but offered in a fetchingly restrained, often-downcast style a la Aimee Mann (even when the lyrics aren’t dejected). Backing vocals, sometimes wordless, offer additional texture.

The release glides along the languid, aired-out Americana of “So Goes the Night,” shuffles in the bliss of “Dazzling,” spellbinds with the dreamy jazz of “Teeter-Totter on a Star” (where she happily sings, “Gonna plant a tree that’ll outlive me”), romps with New Orleans theatrics on “From Miss Emma Brawley” and penetrates with the understatement of “Small Things” (“I drink you in like blue jars of rain”).

Even those without the time or interest in exploring all the levels of “Chocolate Paper Suites” will be nevertheless engaged by the enchanting beauty of the sound on a superficial level. Meanwhile, those who want to probe farther should take a deep breath and dive in.

Rating: 4