Larkin McLean's debut CD

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The L.A. based songwriter and vocal stylist Larkin McLean , who confidently declares herself " a pop singer doing songs with a jazz feel," is as sensuous and seductive as ever on her highly anticipated follow-up X-Rated Musical, but this time, on herindependent self-titled, bossa nova flavored debut she has slightly more than sex on her mind.

Like laughter. "I hope the album tells the story of lust with humor," she says. "Lust is an old story. That's how a lot of us got here." McLean infuses this playful attitude into great, quirky storytelling lyrics and musical vibes that expand her palette beyond mid-60's Astrud Gilberto-Stan Getz (as on "Do I Still Love You") to incorporate nouveau retro elements of soulful jazz, blues, country and even some exotic Tahitian flavors. The mood-setting songs and McLean's edgy and sassy performances are instantly compelling, but the expressive-eyed, dark haired beauty also just completed videos for the opening track "Devil Tuesday" (in lingerie!) and "Don't Wake Up" to show the more visual dimensions of her endless artistry.

"I was in school full time, attending the Drawing and Painting program at the LA Academy of the Figurative Arts when I was making the album," says McLean. "Drawing and painting helped me compose and problem solve better..It's funny how drawing naked people all day can do that! I'm friends with Mark Sebastian, the younger brother of The Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian, who co-wrote the classic 'Summer in the City.' He gave me a lot of good songwriting advice, and just said, 'don't bore people by just talking about your feelings. Have a lot of visuals. So as they say in Nashville, I put in the furniture!

"There's definitely a sexual vibe in these songs, but there are also a lot of emotions attached, too," she adds. "I hope they really stimulate people in a lot of ways. I just approach a song with humility and put my personality in it. Some of the lyrics might come across as 'poor me,' but I didn't write them to gain sympathy. Instead, I want to provoke people and make them think about their own lives."

Helping McLean bring her colorful musical glimpse of Los Angeles' diverse, glitzy but often dark landscape of worldly jazz musicians, tanned surfers, beautiful strangers and drifting daydreamers to life is renowned musician Kenny Lyon. Lyon is a former member of The Lemonheads who frequently plays with hipster loving bands like Brazzaville and with Jim Bianco, Mark Curry, Joel Virgel and Los Super Elegantes. He co-wrote all ten tracks with McLean, in addition to producing, arranging, engineering and playing bass, guitar and˜on the spirited, island-flavored title track "X-Rated Musical," which spoofs the idea that everyone's life provides fodder perfect for Hollywood films ˜the Tahitian Ukelele. McLean's recording band also includes many of the city's top session and touring musicians.

McLean cuts right to the chase on the quirky, jazz-country flavored opening track "Devil Tuesday," which spins a lighthearted yarn about sexual addiction˜you know, the kind of person you know you shouldn't be with but who you just have to see at a forbidden place and time (like every Tuesday). The sweet and graceful, bossa flavored "Do I Still Love You" is a veritable ode to Gidget which finds her looking back at being seduced by an older studly surfer while still a teen. The more confessional, blues drenched "I Get To Be Me" tackles the issue of being with the wrong person, "having sex with a man I can't stand." McLean says, "You can adore the person but still be in a sort of prison because you can't be your true self and your partner is jealous all the time. So you have to ask yourself, is this my soul mate or cell mate?"

First timers to the Larkin McLean experience will also be quickly enraptured by her one trip out of the L.A. mindset, the vibrant Latin-spiced Euro-romp "Roma Roma," and the closing track, "Nobody Gets Over Ava," a bold and brassy ode to a best friend who also happens to be a heartbreaker.

McLean grew up in the Malibu hills listening to her parent's vast collection of music. Her father, a Shakespeare and Lit professor, had a particular affinity for classical, studied to be a composer and once met Stravinsky! But he also introduced his daughter to everything from Fats Waller and Steely Dan to Oingo Boingo and Balinese music.

The singer did musical theatre throughout her childhood, and at 18 began hanging out in L.A.'s late-night jazz scene, getting to know jazz musicians from earlier eras, some at the end of their careers but still playing as if everything is new; some of these cats had played with legends like Ellington, Basie and Sinatra. "I was lucky to have met them," McLean says. "They were so instructive and endearing."

She took voices lessons from well-known singing teacher Laura Hart, whose students included Michelle Pfeiffer, Dyan Cannon and Angie Dickinson and who has been playfully accused of teaching girls how to be sexy. Upon hearing McLean's music, the late great pianist and arranger George Gaffney˜world renowned for his work with the legendary Sarah Vaughn-told her she should make an album˜which resulted in her successful indie debut featuring McLean on the cover striking an ultra-sexy Olivia Newton John Physical era pose.

John Scalzi of Indiecrit.com summarized the collection perfectly when he wrote that McLean is "the sort of husky voiced singer you'd find in a dimly lit smoky bar where husbands go to cheat on their wives only to find their wives sitting at a table in the corner with another man."

Larkin's lyrics reveal a unique array of influences˜singer songwriters Dave Frishberg, Oscar Brown Jr., Frank Loesser, Mose Allison, Tom Waits, and Fats Waller. She is also blessed with an intimately naughty singing voice. "I call myself a pop singer, but I gravitate towards a jazz style because it's sexier. Wasn't jazz invented in Bordellos? For me, making music is all about wanting people to have a good time, have a few laughs and get away from their day to day lives. We had so much fun making X Rated Musical, and that's the spirit I want to share with he people who listen to it."

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