Amy Studt - My Paper Made Men

When the press start bandying around names like Kate Bush and PJ Harvey in relation to your skills, you'd better be ready to step up. In fairness, it's not Amy Studt's fault that she has been grossly misrepresented, but she doesn't have the chops to match her praise. Studt's histrionic caterwauling is more in line with Alanis Morrisette, despite the producers trying their damnedest to ape the holy Harvey/Bush combo. But the ragged edges of the former, and the knee-buckling emotion of the latter is nowhere to be heard. The end product sounds more like a teenage tantrum than a strong female asserting herself, and when 'lyrical complexity' - again not her words, in her defence – manifests itself in a chorus of 'Nice boys, they don't last', one wonders if someone is having a laugh at her expense. Another one for the overfilled box marked 'false promise'. [Matt Gollock]