Liviya Compean

Liviya Compean's music is all about sweaty things that go bump in the night. On her latest release, Hormonal Injustice, the Houston singer has let the world into one of her therapy sessions, where she slings around plenty of vitriol and bodily fluids, not giving a shit about who gets splattered in the process.

Musically, Compean's multi-instrumentalist father, Jesse, provides the session's most interesting flavoring. His jazz- and Latin-influenced sax, trumpet and flute build around his daughter's established blend of riff-driven hard rock. Some of the songs sound cluttered: The drum mix often competes with the vocals, and in two or three other tracks ("Deal with My Death" comes to mind), odd vocal arrangements -- flipping in and out of falsetto and such -- are more off-putting than attractive.

Compean is at her best when she avoids overtinkering with her delivery, such as on "What Do I Do," a straight-ahead rocker with old-school Roxy Music flair. The CD's most powerful moment comes on the dark ballad "You Seduced Me": The protagonist tastes another person on her lover's tongue, but prefers to live in a world of self-denial rather than launch a left hook to her jaw. Compean channels all of her emotions into the song's ebb and flow, which peaks with a primal scream and tails off with a disquieting plea. Harrowing stuff.