Jenny Choi's one-woman band -- beefed up by three male backup players -- is a brave new enterprise. She issued her first solo album, Bittersweet, while she was still a junior at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The University has a strong musical culture (Sarge, x, etc.), Grand and Ashland will add to its reputation as a musical proving-ground.

Frequently compared to Tori Amos, Choi is a singer-songwriter with classical training and instrumentation, pairing personal lyrics with a very frail, girly-girl voice. Choi, however, never roars; while Amos pounds out, "Just because you make me come doesn't make you Jesus", Choi sweetly intones, "You're my hero cos you saved me by / the delivery of your final killing blow" ("My First Time"). It reminds me of Poe's song, "Angry Johnny": "I wanna kill you / I wanna blow you...away.". The listener knows that Poe is not singing about blowing in reference to a gun or murder -- even though the coy lyrics make it hard to prove. She had to sneak it by the FCC somehow.

Choi doesn't have to sneak anything past anyone; she doesn't bother with double entendre, or Tori Amos rip-roaring either. She's post- everything: post-feminist, post-Tori, post-DIY, post-riotgrrl, and she carries it all off with the confident panache of a second-waver. Bitter, dried-up feminist musicians can wither a little bit more with the knowledge that Choi's multitudinous talents come courtesy of their earlier efforts -- though they'll be comforted by the fact that their success is the reason Choi's work is considered mainstream.

Choi is no cookie-cutter talent. In addition to writing her songs, performing most of the instruments and vocals and marketing and producing her CDs through her own label, Ona, Choi makes pretty damn fine music. Her cello is haunting, spare and clean, and her vocals, while slight, are sure and not whiny; her tone is sometimes wondering, while at other times simply observant. In her press, Choi says that she has attempted to make her songs less personal and more accessible to fans' personal interpretation of the lyrics. This explains the fact that Choi seems rather removed from her performance, emotionally speaking. It's good that she explained this, as I found myself wishing she'd be a little less reticent.

It's unfair to compare Choi to Tori Amos simply because Amos sounds like she stabbed herself on her own half-notes, while Choi sounds miles away from her voiced "emotions". On the other hand, Choi doesn't reach for the annoyingly fey supernatural thing. Her songs show distinct talent, and true to her plan, the lyrics provoke an empathetic response. I can't wait to hear Choi sing again, and I hope she puts a little more of herself into her lyrics -- assuming she has any "self" to spare, after using all of her energy to manage her business and play her instrument. Music this personal should hit its mark deeply.