Leerone: Imaginary Biographies

What if Regina Spektor toned it down a couple of notches? Or maybe if Leslie Feist spent a little less time being so damn cute and more time working on her piano arrangements? The result of these reveries might be Imaginary Biographies, the new effort from Leerone (pronounced Lee-roane), a woman whose docile piano pop manages to capture some of the more desirable characteristics of today’s female singer/songwriters while discarding their annoying eccentricities. There is also an all-encompassing sense of humility on this record. “Don’t forget to dot your I’s and cross your T’s / We’ve got a million mouths to feed”, she sings on “To Fill the Void”, while lamenting the “rhetoric of stardom” on “JUNK/Peace of Mind”. It’s very reassuring to know that the artist is aware that there is a moderately more important world outside of her little, ambitious pop record. There is a hint of cabaret on “Care for Some Whiskey?” (with its twinkling toy piano) and a stripped-down piano ballad with “Life Could Be”, but Leerone sticks to a fairly rigid pop song formula throughout Imaginary Biographies, the first full-length from this Los Angeles native.