(critic’s pick)

Seventeen years after the mysterious death of a young Siberian punk-poet nicknamed Yanka, a Ukrainian-born, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter is bringing her music back to life. Alina Simone, who was just a child when her family moved to the Boston suburbs, first heard Yanka’s music in New York’s Russian enclave, Brighton Beach. Her latest album, Everyone Is Crying Out to Me, Beware (released earlier this week on 54-40 or Fight!), is a stark collection of songs committed to tape by Yanka before her untimely death at the age of 24. While Simone’s earlier work presupposed her as an heiress to PJ Harvey’s raw and unrefined rock throne, this collection, sung entirely in Russian, is even more naked. Propelled by jagged acoustic guitar and haunting vocals, the singer’s melodic intonation bypasses any language barriers.