“Imagine a mash-up of Beirut, Regina Spektor, PJ Harvey, and Everything But the Girl”

Simone, an overtly passionate songwriter, is equally comfortable performing the anthemic Russian songs of Yanka Dyagileva, a Siberian punk icon, as she is singing her own, more haunting, material.

…inherits a tradition that PJ Harvey defined in the 90s and Shannon Wright carried on in the 2000s: strong, intense women with smoldering voices set to melodious yet slashing music. Simone may dream of that mythical Ukrainian home, but she expresses herself in the language of crunchy rhythm guitars, chiming leads, and confessional vocals that has soundtracked her American life.  Her singing is both forceful and subtle. It draws out the nuances of lyrics that are full of sinister but deflected evocations of some beautiful oblivion. Pivotal events lurk around every corner here, before and behind, seldom revealed.

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