Audio Mixers: Keren Ann; Erwin Autrique.

Recording information: EMI Publishing Studio, Parsi; Studio Philipsen, Paris, France; Yellow Tangerine, NY.

Photographer: Sahar Golovati.

This is the fourth album from Israeli-French chanteuse Keren Ann, though only her second outing released in the United States. Recorded in both Paris and New York City, NOLITA finds the artist in mid-Atlantic crossover, caught up in Old World ennui and Manhattan isolation. Here Keren Ann, singing in both French and English, wanders through a gallery of sad songs, all captured in a rich, natural production style.

The opener, "Que N'ai-je?," has a mild bossa nova lilt, while the title track doubles her vocal in a just-woke-up sexy harmony (reminiscent of Azure Ray), eventually accompanied by a violin that doesn't know whether it's serenading or shivering in the cold. A mellow electric guitar straight out of the Velvet Underground's third album brings a narcotic elegance to "Chelsea Burns," while "Midi Dans Le Salon De La Duchesse" weds pedal-steel country to a "Sea of Love"-style pop rhythm. On other tracks, touches of harmonica, piano, and trumpet add to the urban, rain-soaked moodiness, but it all comes down to Keren Ann's spare acoustic guitar and sultry, half-whispered vocals, suffused with a romantic longing both immediately intimate and already gone.