Breath from Another

Esthero began as a duo: the Canadian singer Jenny-Bea Englishman and the producer Doc McKinney, working in Toronto in the wake of Portishead and Massive Attack. Their album came out in 1998 on a Sony imprint, earned good reviews, sold badly, and then spent two decades being passed from person to person. The formula is downtempo beats, strings, and a voice that slides between jazz phrasing and pop hooks without strain. Heaven Sent was the single. The people who find this record tend to get evangelical about it.