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Maeve Hughes’ first full-length CD, Begin From Within, is an interesting mix of soul, jazz and funk, with a little reggae thrown in for luck. At its best, this mixture whips up a musical cocktail that shakes the cobwebs off category-entrenched minds. Songs like Heron groove with upbeat acid-jazz, lyrics half spoken, half sung, while Broken Wing lays down a nice mid-tempo beat with a scratch turntable and floaty sax.

But sometimes Hughes’ experimentation can’t get out of its own way. Tunes like the title track have so much rhythmic variation they have trouble finding home, and yet lack the edge needed to make innovation itself an art. Hughes has an interesting voice with a throaty warmth. But at times—as in Fly Away — she drifts up into a thin falsetto that doesn’t quite work.

Hughes—who wrote all of the tracks (co-writing Empathy with Marcus Gilroy-Ware) and co-produced the CD—says the album represents the intense spiritual transformation she underwent as the result of a major car accident that gave her a near-death experience. This theme comes on strong, especially on cuts like Persephone’s Torch: "Just like Persephone, I dug down deep into Hades / Winter queen, I bring whatever I need with me.” Unfortunately, though, her writing too often comes off trite, like in First Light, where “Autumn leaves fall fresh and bright / when you see them at first light.” All in all, it’s difficult to recommend this uneven album based on the few tracks that really work.