Cruel Inventions by Sam Phillips

Cruel Inventions, Sam Phillips' sixth album, came out on Virgin in 1991 with T Bone Burnett producing, and it's the work of a songwriter who'd come a long way from where she started. Born Leslie Ann Phillips in Glendale, California, she began her career in Christian music, singing backup for Mark Heard and Randy Stonehill and cutting four Christian pop albums for Myrrh under her given name.

Here she's out on her own terms: sharp, spare pop-rock with a chill running under the melodies, the hooks never quite as comforting as they first sound. "Lying" and "Now I Can't Find The Door" are the songs rock radio kept. Critics mostly warmed to it, and at Entertainment Weekly David Browne gave it an A, found it full of beauty and tension, and ranked it his sixth favorite album of 1991. The acclaimed Martinis & Bikinis came later, in 1994.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.