New York Daily News
March 23, 2007
Sister act's back

By JIM FARBER
DAILY NEWS MUSIC CRITIC

An otherworldly 'Moonswept' from the Roches (from l.), Maggie, Suzzy, and Terre.

Nothing shimmers like the harmonies of the Roches. It's a marvel how the three sisters' voices entwine so tightly, only to then drift over the notes in ways either wary or assured.

Fans have missed the density of those harmonies for too long - more than 10 years, in fact. Maggie, Terre and Suzzy Roche haven't recorded an album of new songs together since the mid-'90s, though they've been involved in each other's lives and various musical projects in the time between.

This week they release "Moonswept," the first official Roches album since 1995's "Can We Go Home Now." To toast the deed, they'll headline the Concert Hall (2 W. 64th St.) tonight at 8.

The songs on "Moonswept" represent the trio's most assured material since the albums that made them legends-on-arrival: 1979's "The Roches" and 1980's "Nurds." Once again, the new disk offers a mix of story songs and joke songs, mournful pieces studded with comedy and goofy ditties that cut unexpectedly deep.

In "Piggy Mask," about a relationship that's losing its spark, Suzzy sings "I'd like you to think of me/as someone you'd put your teeth in for." But the bossa nova melody, and her voice, carry a genuine ache. "Huh" may first appear to be a novelty number, cobbling together a long list of lost-my-place non sequiturs. But it has the stoner profundity of a Steven Wright joke, nailing the unknowability of just about everything.

Amid the tales and mantras on the CD, there's a motif that poses a central question: How do we keep emotional connections with others when there's so much loss, partings and change along the way?

Several references to 9/11 turn up, but the songs hardly needed such a catastrophe to express what they're after: the mounting dilemmas of everyday life.

Perhaps the most beautiful expression of loss comes in a song ("Long Before") not sung by the three sisters at all. It was written and performed by Lucy Roche, Suzzy's daughter with Loudon Wainwright. What a gorgeous piece it is, with a crystalline melody that Lucy's vocals light from below.

The result points up again the genetic elements that give the Roches' work special focus and richness. We're lucky to finally have it back again in full glow.