Her third album delayed by tussles with her label over the banjo on the single "Lose Your Way", Sophie B. Hawkins turned to her Internet fans and the resulting e-mail campaign got this album released in the form she intended. The arrangements she fought for are often lovely; unfortunately, the songs behind them don't have much of the conceptual and melodic elegance of her earlier hits. "Timbre"s songs are almost all moon-eyed mid-tempo ballads, with sexed-up lyrics vague enough that they're open to pretty much any interpretation. Aside from "The Darkest Childe", a bizarre spiel surrounded by sampled voices and sound effects, it's awfully bland - disappointing from a songwriter who was once anything but that.