Jess Vincent
Album: Time Frame
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.jessvincentmusic.co.uk

If after "Army Dreamers" Kate Bush had spent more time listening Leonard Cohen than Peter Gabriel than "Time Frame" may well have been her album, as it was she didn't and that means that Jess Vincent rightly gets the plaudits for an album that is proud of its influences, but prouder still to be the album to launch another massive West Country talent onto an unsuspecting world.

Having apprenticed in bands like The Penny Red, Jess is definitely ready to strike out in her own name with a very strong set of songs under her belt and a really developed sense of emotion in her voice. There are times when she's singing that I swear you can hear her smiling and the sense of empathy that brings with it can't be under estimated.

There are lots of fine singers that I could listen to for hours, Jess has not only joined them, she's leapt up that list like Jessica Ennis tackling a high jump. When she delivers her songs, it's not just like she's singing the words, more like she's living them.

That sense of empathy extends into her writing and it's no surprise that "Time Frame" is very much a people, places and stories album. Events unfold as the songs evolve and not always in the way that you would expect. She draws on traditional images and updates them well, enraged fathers preferring the shotgun to the sword as a weapon of choice for example.

With an album as distinctive as this you can also feel a very delicate hand on the desk and in that capacity, step forward Reg Meuross, who also plays on the album and co-wrote "Sally In The Woods" one of the darkest songs on the album, which doesn't lack in the body count department anyway.

There is so much to recommend "Time Frame", Jess Vincent is a name that should become as familiar on the lips as the wind is upon the trees. This is an album that is simply captivating and one that you'll find difficult to put away.

Neil King