The songs for Lynn Teeter Flower, an album named after a family friend in Maria Taylor's native Birmingham, Alabama, reveals a woman settling very well into her role as a solo artist, peeling back some of the layers of the last album to reveal a more organic sound.

With Lynn Teeter Flower, Maria Taylor is taking her songcraft to new heights, mixing together soaring guitars, bubbly electronics, feathery farfisa organs and sugary layers of vocals into the sweetest confection of an album you'll hear all year.

Opener A Good Start is propelled by a vicious groove, setting the tone for an album more influenced by rhythm, very possibly the result of one of Maria's favorite hobbies: playing the drums. Smile and Wave weaves a bed of Strawberry Fields-esque mellotron with ribbons of Maria's rich voice, while My Own Fault strips everything down to a sparse drum machine, a dry electric guitar and a seasick organ mingling with Maria's lament.

• a good start
• clean getaway
• smile and wave
• no stars
• replay
• small part of me
• irish goodbye
• my own fault
• the ballad of sean foley
• lost time
• lynn teeter flower