IDINA MENZEL: ‘Still I Can’t Be Still’

Former “Rent” star Idina Menzel hasn’t moved in with a lover without giving the decision a lot of thought. Or maybe she has and lived to regret it. Just listen to her plant a few red flags into the notion of blissful cohabitation as she boldly opens her new album with “Minuet”: “If we move in together/ will I still be a slob/ will things get ordinary/ will I [expletive] you off/ ’cause I don’t cook/ throw the clothes on the floor/ and I mix the darks and whites/ oh, baby your kisses are pure/ and the sex lasts for hours/ you want me more the less I shower.”

The Tony-nominated singer, who played the role of “Maureen” in “Rent,” spends most of her time on this impressive pop debut in a state of “mixed-up confusion,” to borrow a line from Bob Dylan. Struggling to make sense of her life, honestly addressing both the pleasure and the pain, she’s constantly torn between what’s good for her and what feels good to her, often delivering sharply worded songs in a powerful, keening voice. The emotional tension is vented in various ways, yet nearly always with conviction, as Menzel turns her attention from a harrowing tale of sexual abuse (“Larissa’s Lagoon”) to her own failings (“I wish I could write with Joni Mitchell’s pen,” she confides on “Fool Out of Me”) to the album’s bittersweet coda, “Heart on My Sleeve.”

Produced by Dionne Farris collaborators Milton Davis and James Bevelle, the album boasts some of the quirky sonic appeal of Farris’s memorable debut, and there are times when Menzel’s balladry brings Tori Amos to mind. As a songwriter drawn to deeply personal themes, though, Menzel already seems well on her way to developing a distinctive and compelling voice.