First Listen: Erin McKeown, 'Manifestra'

When assessing music, words like "independent" — and especially "indie" — get tossed around like so much confetti, often to describe works that aren't independent of anything. Particularly at this point in her many-hyphened career, Erin McKeown is a genuine independent: Her seventh album, Manifestra, is self-released, following a succession of detours and hairpin turns that have led her through folk, pop, rock, jazz standards and swing, along with many hybrids thereof. Unbound by trends or mainstream commercial considerations, she's fully free to explore and surprise.

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