But with girl-group harmonies around her, and arrangements harking back to Motown, Stax and ska, she sounded shrewd and knowing, a woman who recognized all her own weaknesses and could see beyond them.
STEREOLAB "Not Music" would seem to end an uncertain hiatus by this blithely contrarian British lounge-rock band, which sounds as shrewd and analog-obsessed as ever.
By comparison, paying full retail to be a vain beta tester doesn't sound like shrewd status-enhancing.
His use of sound is a shrewd gambit, and his rejection of the noisy and oppressive crunch of the too loud sound mixing we hear in most American films pays off.
The expert director David Leveaux has positioned the musicians upstage and visible among the trees, so that the tale seems almost to emerge out of their sound; Tom Pye's shrewd, understated set and Vicki Mortimer's witty costumes conjure a captivating sense of place — provincial Russia at the turn of the twentieth century.
Instead, Taylor sounds a note of shrewd nostalgia for the countries where he once lived -- and delivers some exceptionally fine travel reportage while he's at it.
The last line she sang was "I'm not going away," and she had to know how shrewd it sounded.
Consulting and services firms, in particular, love the sound of intrapreneurship: its shrewd initiative and entrepreneurial chutzpah, its promise of full-scale corporate renovation.
When he decided to back Mr Kennedy and not contest the Lib Dem leadership he earned himself a return to the frontbench and assured that Mr Kennedy, the darling of the chat shows, would receive shrewd and sound advice.
On the one hand, there is a Southampton side that have just beaten Internazionale to show, again, why they should be regarded as the prime example of what can happen at a medium-sized club that applies common sense, a sound business structure, makes shrewd appointments and understands what a football team means to the local community.
