by Tom DemalonAfter the less successful critical and commercial fortunes of her second record, House of Hope, Toni Childs jumped labels from A&M to Geffen for her third release, The Woman's Boat, in 1994. She also enlisted a new producer in David Botrill with whom Childs shares production credits. Recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios, The Woman's Boat features an impressive array of musicians including David Rhodes, Robert Fripp and Trey Gunn. The album itself is an ambitious song-cycle exploring the female perspectives from the heartbeats of the opening track "Womb" through the ten-minute confessional epic "Death," which closes the record. In between, there's the sonic rush of "Welcome to the World," which gracefully juxtaposes a mother's expression of fear and optimism to her unborn child, and the ominous tone of "Predator" expressing the darker side of human nature. The music edges Childs deeper into world music territory with its exotic instrumentation and rhythms. The Woman's Boat is a rich, complex and, occasionally, meandering work that, while failing to return Childs to mainstream success, does reward the listener.