Sam Phillips: Don't Do Anything Sam Phillips writes lyrics like a miser spends his money. Her literary equivalent would be, say, Amy Hempel, whose short stories possess the brutal concision of a guilty plea. What makes Sam Phillips' music so rewarding—that she places demands on the listener to meet her at least half way—is precisely what makes it challenging for many other listeners: that she asks you to meet her half way. Those who are up to the challenge will discover an artist who has produced a consistently excellent, if not prolific, body of work—seven albums over nearly twenty years, plus, now, her latest, Don't Do Anything. It's Phillips' first record (excluding gospel releases recorded as Leslie Phillips) not produced by her former husband, T Bone Burnett. Self produced, Don't Do Anything does not sound dramatically different from her previous work with Burnett. Where Burnett might tend to let Phillips' sound breathe here and there or become gauzy and relaxed, on Don't Do Anything Phillips wants the sound to exert itself, flex its muscles—and it does. Thus the music on Don't Do Anything comes across as slightly claustrophobic and grimly atmospheric, but it is clearly self-assured, and, yes, challenging. Because its rewards exceed it challenges, Don't Do Anything is Sam Phillips' best release since 1994's Bikinis & Martinis, her only album (Grammy nominated) to receive wide-spread acclaim. A listener thoroughly familiar with Phillips' work might be inclined to pronounce it her "divorce" album. In the album there does reside a deep sense, painful at times, of abandonment, heartbreak, perhaps betrayal—but the idea that Don't Do Anything is Phillips' breakup record does the whole concept a disservice. Phillips is a woman of intense, if quirky, emotion—which includes great resilience—and it reveals itself here in ways not fundamentally different or more intense than in her other work. Subjects other than her former husband actually exist. Still, divorce is pain, and you'd have to call Don't Do Anything a modest departure from the body of her work. A barely controlled fire underpins the music, and occasionally it flares up to great effect. The result is an album (especially "Another Song," and "Shake it Down") that tends sonically to edge toward Tom Waits' late-career territory—a little bit cabaret, a dash of calliope, plus a modest industrial sound, as in the Waits of Bone Machine and Swordfishtrombones, while of course retaining the razor-like vignettes Phillips writes so devoutly. For this, The Section Quartet, as support, deserves recognition for the pitched and exotic feel of Don't Do Anything. Phillips opens Don't Do Anything in a state of confusion, and then finds, without drama, a certain clarity: in "No Explanations," she writes: "I thought if he understood/He wouldn't treat me this way/No explanations…She looked me over and over/And couldn't locate me/No explanation." Almost imperceptibly we know there's a she in the equation. A number of songs represent a sort of lost-in-the-wilderness feel, but you're never worried that Phillips won't eventually find her way. In one of the albums best songs, "My Little Plastic Life," Phillips acknowledges a premonition and then ignites the fire of self-renewal, even if the result is fake and small; perfect little lives you won't find in Sam Phillips work. "I detected fire in myself/Before the flame/I burnt it all to the ground/Burnt it all to the ground/Burnt it all…Perfect was a nice disguise/It never fit/But I still have my little plastic life to remind me." In "My Career in Chemistry," Phillips sings: "I'd rather be alone/Than with someone/Who doesn't know secrets/A little bit of code…Lie, lie, bye, bye/My career in chemistry/I still wear you, but bbbye, bye, bye." Worlds divide, worlds collide: those are Phillips pitiless pronouncement in Don't Do Anything. With a near-stingy use of perfect language—poetry: the right word in the right place—and a pool of talented musicians lending an assist, Sam Phillips, without glee or gloom, has given us a record as profound and perplexing and rewarding as any disc released this year.