Something COOOOOL!

Between the extremes of harsh cold and blast-furnace heat lies something… cool.

Not passionless, but showing a restraint that’s often more powerful than full-on exuberance, some artists know the advantage of a softer voice – it pulls in the patient listener for closer attention. Here are three singers who swing the velvet hammer.

ELENI MANDELL is a southern California girl who has hung out with (if not been mentored by) the likes of Tom Waits and Chuck E. Weiss. So she’s got hipster-cred in the bank, and a matching attitude in her work.

Her first few albums were dominated by lounge and torch songs. She veered off into classic twang on “Country for True Lovers” and hit her stride in the pop-dominated but ultra-mellow “Miracle of Fives” from 2007. Now, with her brand-new “ARTIFICIAL FIRE,” she’s made her best yet.

The “fire” in the title is not misleading. She actually comes close to breaking a sweat on a few of the tunes (written 100 percent by her), but always maintains her composure. The “artificial” modifier is a bit inaccurate, as her emotional commitment is anything but fake.

The CD gets off on a thumping start with the title cut featuring a cutting guitar figure playing off a funky martial rhythm. She sings a shade behind the beat sometimes, at others right on it – the essence of swing. But this is a pop record, make no mistake.

The next song, “God Is Love,” gets pretty metaphysical and hazy, but the next four cuts get at her essence: etched-glass portraits of the personal.

“The Right Side” is a swaying bit of fluff that sticks like cotton candy. “Personal” is a litany of details creating a portrait of a whole persona, swathed in closely-miked strings. “Tiny Waist” is a dreamy waltz punctuated by Jeremy Drake’s pointillist guitar. (Drake, by the way, is a mighty presence on almost every cut, changing his accompaniment to suit each tune’s needs.)

“Bigger Burn” and “Little Foot” are uptempo surprises. Chryssie Hynde (Pretenders) is the only other singer who could maintain such cool with such heat at her back.

More beauty follows with “Don’t Let It Happen,” a warning to a very stupid lover. “In the Doorway” describes the location of a tryst, and generates maximum lust with the most nonchalant and breezy ingredients. The album ends strongly with “Two Faces” and “Cracked,” the former an angular oddity that still works, and the latter a flat-out rocker that seems almost added on as a bonus cut.

This record is my favorite release of this year, so far. It hits me viscerally, and engages the brain.

NEKO CASE’s red hair is not usually associated with cool. And she does occasionally belt out her self-penned tunes.

Her coolness is more of an attitude and a distance created by her obtuse imagery, unconventional song structures and utterly unique voice, cutting and reverb-laden as it is. She’s an acquired taste, but once gotten, unforgettable.

Her new one, “MIDDLE CYCLONE,” is her “upbeat” record (self-described). It’s telling then that it puts most other pop records to shame when it comes to density of subject matter and lyrical thoughtfulness.

“This Tornado Loves You” starts things off with an anthropomorphic story told from the point of view of a sentimental weather phenomenon. (F-4’s have feelings, too.) “The Next Time You Say Forever” is much more conventional in its reproach to a lover, although with lines like, “Waltzing with the hairs upon my arms/then your final flight alarms” no one will accuse her of cliché.

The next cut is standout: “People Got A Lotta Nerve” is truly radio- and hit-worthy. It’s beat is irresistible, and it’s gabbing on about killer whales and dismemberment are mystifyingly charming. But it’s when she sings, “I’m a man, man, maneater/ But still you’re surprised, prised, prised, when I eat ya,” that poetic orbital breakthrough is achieved.

She’s quite the animal lover. Besides killer whales, birds sing accompaniment on “Polar Nettles” and “I’m an Animal” makes the point obviously.

She’s also riding the front of a 1970’s Mercury Cougar brandishing a spear, and the last cut is 31 minutes of southern nature sounds (crickets and frogs, mostly).

For the adventurous only, Neko Case will reward those who take the journey with her as guide.

PATRICIA BARBER is cool personified. Her heroes are June Christy, Jo Stafford, Helen Merrill – jazz and torch singers who knew ice can burn even worse than fire. She works on jazz turf mostly, borrowing in the past from pop when it suited her. (Bill Withers’ “Use Me,” Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” and Sonny Bono’s “The Beat Goes On” are just a few examples).

She received a Guggenheim “genius” grant and produced a stirring work of… genius? …with 2007’s “Mythologies,” a song cycle based on Ovid’s ancient poetry.

What better way to relax and still wow the crowds than by taking a break from all that genius-infused writing to cover the brilliant songs of Cole Porter?

“THE COLE PORTER MIX” is just that, but she by no means is coasting. Instead she takes liberties with each song, teasing out new meaning and subverting expectations.

Thus “Easy to Love” gets a lilting but open-ended bossa nova treatment; “I Get a Kick Out of You” is rhythmically free-form (invoking the drugginess of its theme); “Just One of Those Things” romps as a swinging burner, and so on. She ad libs on a few tunes, most noticeably on “You’re the Top,” where she updates the metaphorical compliments and leaves no doubt as to her political and literary leanings.

She even contributes two of her own originals, presumably to complement the Porter style. She shows lyrical affinity with him on “Snow,” where she sings, “Do you think of me like snow/cool, slippery and white? Do you think of me like jazz/as hip, as black as night?”

Barber is brainy, to be sure, but she lets listeners know her internal engine is working, purring like the cool cat she is.

On a completely unrelated note, Jazz Fest looks to be top notch this year. Go.