Joan Armatrading is an exciting guitarist as well as the mistress of a large, boomy voice. Her melodies are touching, though set to lyrics that are mystifying at best. They may mean nothing at all, simply groupings of interesting words that could obliquely suggest some meaning if one is driven to fathom it.

Aida Pavletich, "Chirps, Thrushes, and Nightingales," in her Rock-A-Bye, Baby (copyright © 1980 by Aida Pavletich; reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc.), Doubleday, 1980, pp. 147-82.∗