As a solo artist, Liela Moss is as committed to changing up her sound as she is when she works with the Duke Spirit. She recorded Who the Power with the same basic setup as her debut My Name Is Safe in Your Mouth, working with partner, producer, and Duke Spirit bassist Toby Butler in their home studio, but instead of continuing in the vein of that album's languid dream-folk, her second solo album delivers kinetic synth rock. Who the Power is the flipside of her debut in more ways than one: Moss sounded gorgeously cloistered on My Name Is Safe in Your Mouth, but here, she seems pent-up and itching to break free. As good as she is at more hushed material, her years with the Duke Spirit prove that she's ideally suited for more dramatic and dynamic fare, so it's a pleasure to hear her revisit this side of her music from a more intimate vantage point on Who the Power. She takes on unequal relationships -- both personal and political -- with all of her might, and when she sings "knowledge, baby/I'm the power" on the forceful opener "Turn Your Back Around," she's indomitable. Despite Who the Power's intensity, Moss still finds room for subtlety. On "Watching the Wolf"'s smoldering rock and "White Feather"'s brooding pop, she examines the roles of predator and prey from fascinatingly shifting perspectives. Disgust is a particularly fruitful muse for her on "The Individual," where she snarls "you must be unbearable" over synths and whooping backing vocals that sound equally ominous and ecstatic. Moss and Butler have ventured into electronic sounds before with their project Roman Remains and with the Duke Spirit, so it makes sense that Who the Power blends in synth textures skillfully on songs as different as the winding drama of "Suako" and the dreamy ballad "Stolen Careful." That Who the Power's most uninhibited moments are among its finest offers more proof that Moss is at her best when she pushes her limits. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi

1		Turn Your Back Around
2		Watching the Wolf
3		Atoms At Me
4		Always Sliding
5		The Individual
6		White Feather
7		Battlefield
8		Nummah
9		Suako
10		Stolen Careful

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