Unlike Beth Gibbons or Amy Winehouse, who continue to apply a skewed approach to their not unconsiderable talents, Nell Bryden lends her smoky and competent tonsils to a fairly under whelming anthology of tracks that cheerfully approximate the best and worst characteristics of blues, country and western and traditional Dixieland jazz. It’s not unpleasant by any means, but the intent seems squarely more focused on arousing the interest of record companies and moguls that it does the affections and curiosity of the average listener. It’s consummate, adept and as polished as your Gran’s best brasses, but it really fails to engage you on any deeper level. You applaud the technical wizardry that recreates 1940s New Orleans on the spicy and uptempo, ‘Tonight’ and may even tap your foot in a determined fashion to the steel-pedal score of barn-stomper, ‘Where The Pavement Ends’ – but at the end of the eleven tracks you’ve pretty much forgotten all about it.
Her dad was an impressionist painter, she made a bundle on an old Milton Avery original she sold at Sothebys and has toured with everyone from KT Tunstall to Counting Crows. But it still doesn’t make this album anymore interesting than a competent showcase.
‘SECOND TIME AROUND’ Released 27/10/08