Pop Music Reviews : Southon’s Jazz Style Can Cool to Excess

Like an air conditioner stuck on high, Sonny Southon’s cool-jazz stylings are first gratifyingly refreshing, but soon become uncomfortably excessive.

At the Roxy on Thursday, the New Zealand native presented an hour’s worth of half-good songs, culled primarily from her debut album, “Falling Through a Cloud.” Just as a melody would assert itself, her two drummers and one very loud percussionist would kick up a sort of generic ethno-beat that overwhelmed her voice and invariably meandered on for too long.

When the band (which also included a bassist, guitarist and two back-up singers) was kept in check, some provocative songs emerged that could give Sade a run for her money on the adult contemporary charts. Southon’s spritely tunes bely profoundly dark lyrics about prostitution, heroin addiction, the futility of life and the like. It’s a wonder that she was able to smile.

Her vocalizing has a muffled huskiness to it, as if she were singing through a surgical mask. The affect is subtly sexy, a perfect complement to her overt physical beauty, which she sets off well with a peculiar sort of hand jive and fluid dance steps. Southon may not yet have a handle on a workable musical personality, but at least she looks like a star. That’s often half the battle.