If innocuous pop music were outlawed, only outlaws would make innocuous pop music. Should that ever turn out to be the case, you might want to put out an APB on Merril Bainbridge--that other diminutive Australian chanteuse--who took America by storm with the hit "Mouth" from her 1996 debut album, The Garden. Between the Days offers a kinder, gentler trip to Spiceworld, with its simmering rhythms, shimmering production, and Bainbridge's coy vocals on the sprightly title track, the lightly drum & bass-accented "Goodbye to Day," and the smoldering seduction song "Love and Terror." There'll be no mistaking Between the Days for anything but a sweet pop trifle, but it's a charming one nonetheless. --Daniel Durchholz
