It's not by happenstance that "Come Back to Me," a fairly candid cover from X's Under the Big Black Sun, is the kickoff to Sarah Borges's second album, nor that the feisty country-singing Bostonian would find inspiration from a 25-year-old punk album. Actually, despite a host of twangy guitars and songs about love, longing, and retribution, Borges admits to having a greater fondness for Exene Cervenka's caterwauling--and '80s and '90s indie rock--than any vocal tutorial from Loretta Lynn. Pulsating tracks such as "Lonely Town" and "Diablito," and the poppy "Stop and Think It Over," tugged from the mold of the Go-Go's' Beauty and the Beat, are in debt to those influences without overshadowing what's left of the record: a rummage through the roots of American music. Borges lays down the honky-tonk ("False Eyelashes"), dishes out the blues ("Open Up Your Back Door"), and two-steps her way through an admission of commitment, inquiring "How many ways can I say that I love you?" ("The Day We Met"). Twelve songs. No filler. And a gifted artist on the rise. --Scott Holter