If the poppy seedpods and turn-of-the-century sedatives don’t give away Jill Tracy’s predilection, her song titles might. Certainly, “Evil Night Together,” “The Fine Art of Poisoning,” “Just the Other Side of Pain,” and “Doomsday Serenade” suggest some gothic leanings, and lyrical references to bergamot tea, blood boiled to an opalescent blue, holy books and legerdemain, and tiptoeing through carcasses and bones are blatantly medieval, if not positively poetic. Most of us have come to the conclusion, despite all the prattle about eternal youth, that goths age pretty poorly. The melodramatic imagery, so charming against a 15-year-old pallor, usually wears like cheap lipstick and bobby socks on anyone over 25. But Jill Tracy has made an exquisite, even luscious record. Featuring Tracy’s new band, the Malcontent Orchestra, Diabolical Streak plunges into an epicurean cushion of double bass, violoncello, timpani, bassoon, percussion, yaili tambour, and, of course, Tracy’s molten ivories. Tracy has become a wise and graceful melancholy baby with a dexterous sense of humor. Her voice swishes through velvet curtains with a coquettish wink and sidles up with vaudevillian surety. She wraps you with a smoky coo, and as you soften under that sophisticated smirk you realize too late she’s tied you to the third rail while the cobwebs descend and the sea fills with blood. Jill Tracy celebrates her CD release party with Malcontent Orchestra, a traditional French puppet performance by Marionette a la Planchette and hurdy-gurdy player David Miles, the exotic mysteries of Sita Rose, and the acrobatic feats of Double Dog Dare Mini-Circus at Cafe Du Nord on Wednesday, July 7, at 9 p.m. Tickets are $5; call 861-5016. Silke Tudor, SF Weekly. vol 18, no.22