AMBROSIA Parsley sounds like a dish or maybe a Bond girl.

Either way, she looks one too, and in 1999 she announced her arrival with one of the all-time great album titles, I Oughtta Give You A Shot In The Head For Making Me Live In This Dump.

That's how to catch the attention, and now singer-songwriter Parsley returns, still more verbal than herbal despite that name, with a second album, less distinctive, not so arresting but equally summed up by its far shorter title, Rough Dreams.

Parsley fronts her band - a maverick Californian trio - in the way Shirley Manson leads Garbage or Maria McKee led Lone Justice: no matter the other contributors, she is Shivaree.

Like McKee, her floating voice haunts each snaking song, whether a twisted country lament or something Gothic and Deeply Southern, as if she were auditioning for a surreal David Lynch movie soundtrack. With better tunes, she could be the new Julee Cruise.

Updated: 09:53 Thursday, June 27, 2002