If anyone could be forgiven for being cynical about the music industry, it's Kathryn Williams. Apart from having one album nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, the Liverpudlian singer-songwriter has signally failed to receive the attention her talent so clearly deserves. So, in a bid to rekindle her enthusiasm for music, she's gone back to her roots and made a covers album as an homage to some of her early inspirations. Williams has been called the queen of bedsit angst, so it's no surprise that the tracklisting is made up of songs from such misery merchants as Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Tim Hardin and Nirvana. With her gentle, acoustic approach and beautifully pure voice, however, she manages to make them all sound as if she's just dashed them off this morning. The earth won't move and the charts will barely be interested. But make no mistake, this is a gorgeous album from a criminally underrated artist.
