For all we might want to harp on about cutting edge this and radical that, the records which have made the big bucks over the past few years have been by nice, slightly middle-of-the-road, predominantly female singer songwriters. Northerner Claire Sproule fits that bill to a tee.
Her debut wafts by on a heady mix of pretty melodies, a sweet voice and acoustic instruments – no wonder perhaps that the record has been picked up in the US by Blue Note, the home of Norah Jones. Encouragingly, Sproule doesn’t sound to be out of her depth at such a level, her singing is confident and her songs belie her 21-years.
Yet, nowhere on her debut do you get a real sense of who Claire Sproule is. That she is influenced by Carole King and Joni Mitchell is clear, but that isn’t particularly big news these days. What would be nice is to hear her stamp her own identity on matters, to display just a hint of grit amongst all this carefully constructed gloss.
Time is certainly on her side but, if this does go on to sell millions, the pressure to keep playing it safe isn’t going to go away.