Amanda Kapousouz, aka Tin Cup Prophette, spent time busking on the subway in New York City before relocating to Athens, GA, but she retains some of the arty urban influence of her city-dwelling days, along with some of the collegiate, R.E.M.-style artiness of Athens on her self-released debut album, Liar and the Thief. Kapousouz plays violin, and Will Taylor’s cello is used on the disc’s catchiest number, “Going Numb,” but the strings actually are subsumed within spare, heavily programmed arrangements that provide disembodied support to the compressed, otherworldly vocals. There is some of the feel of the ’80s band Yaz, in which Vince Clarke’s synthesizers contrasted with Alison Moyet’s emotional voice, but as a vocalist, Kapousouz is closer to a couple of other New Yorkers, Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson, in her formal, distanced singing. It’s an appropriate approach for her lyrics, which, despite the frequent presence of a first-person narrator, are poetic and nonlinear. All of this adds up to more of a moody art statement than an easily accessible listening experience. – William Ruhlmann