Sure, "Whatever You Want," the second track on the album, is the clear "single candidate," but thanks to the production smarts of Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Madeleine Peyroux) the album is much more than a few singles and album "filler" tracks. There's not a dud in this bunch, and the standout reason is that Teng looked at Dreaming Through The Noise as an album first, rather than a series of individual songs.

The greatest improvement upon 2004's Warm Strangers is the texture of sound created by Teng's backing band. Early in her career she was comfortable recording songs which featured merely herself and a piano. On 2004's Warm Strangers she began experimenting with wider-ranging accompaniments, but nothing on that album prepares a listener for the headphone experience granted by Dreaming Through The Noise. The entire album has the feeling of a private concert; "Love Turns 40," "Transcontinental, 1:30 a.m." and the stunningly gorgeous "Pontchartrain" stand out as much because of their arrangements as they do for the power of Teng's voice, which is in itself an addictive property.

The other key difference between this album and its predecessors is the fact that, while tying the entire album through with a jazz touch, Teng confidently experiments with individual genres within that framework. The standout in that regard is "City Hall." Written in the country music mold, the song focuses on a same-sex couple who had the opportunity to marry in February 2004 in San Francisco. The song excels musically and lyrically; as the music fades back for the bridge near the end, the music subtly echoes strains of Don McLean's iconic "American Pie," succeeding in giving the song an almost accidental hook:

Ten years waiting for this moment of fate
When we say these words and sign our names
And if they take it away again some day
This beautiful thing won't change

In the end Dreaming Through The Noise becomes that rare album lover's album which suceeds from start to finish on the merits of the song cycle as a whole. That would be stunning enough coming from a veteran artist with ten albums under her belt. That Vienna Teng has reached this level of artistic finesse in just her third effort suggests she's the most important American singer-songwriter to emerge this decade.