Gillian Glover
Album: Still Life With Music
Label: Make My Day Music
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.gillianglover.com

Having a famous musician for a father can't be the easiest of scenarios - in Gillian's case father being Deep Purple bass player - and thus Gillian shied away from performing until she was in her early 20s, while pursuing a scuba diving career in Egypt! But once bitten, I guess, and especially after finally settling in London in 2001, music took hold with a vengeance, and her debut solo album Red-Handed was recorded in 2005 and released the following year.

Since then, there's been having children, and helping out on dad's 2012 solo album, to keep Gillian busy; but as she candidly admits on her website, "no matter how much life changes or how busy it gets having children, music will continue to play a part". Hence album number two, a reaction to life if you like, which comes more assured and unified than its predecessor, taking in world and contemporary folk influences and displaying production values that are sensibly layered, cradling Gillian's rich vocal in a busy, bustling band setting that's full of presence (its nucleus comprising partner Travis Porter with Drew Salida, Donny Mahmood, Pedro Sabrosa and Mark Greenfield). Ostensibly, Gillian's songs capture moments in time, with lyrics that play through the personal angle - and yet their stories somehow seem less striking than the musical settings, and after one play through most of the songs have passed me by without making a significant impression.

On subsequent plays, I found myself concentrating on inner detail within the arrangements rather than the lyrics - which isn't how I'd imagined it would be. In that context, it's reassuring to find the lyrics printed in the booklet, although in several cases the act of reading seems to emphasise their curious lack of artistic or narrative development.

Closing track Cairo, a collaboration with dad, is a wordless ambient creation based on a recording in the dark hallway of a Cairo hotel. Earlier, just past the disc's midway point, Gillian slips in a cover of the Beatles' Fixing A Hole, which is arguably the CD's most memorable track, because it at least tries to do something a bit different with the song. Even so, the overall impression of Still Life With Music is of an unfocused talent that seems merely content to just meander.

David Kidman