Spell

Since Ursula Burns' last album, the quirky According To three years ago, I'm told that she has done a great deal of roadwork in the name of music - and on her return, there isn't a harp in sight. Now that's a real break with the past.

Evidence of forward movement is provided not just in a more mature songwriting style, mindful at times of artists as varied as Jane Siberry and Kristin Hersh, but a musical construct based around her fluid piano playing, which was, it seems, her first instrument.

Anyhow, Spell is a fine and engaging piece of work, involving at every level. Behind the music and lyrics there's always other stuff going on, so that your attention is never allowed to wander. For the most part the songs are cast in slow tempos, but there's nothing wrong with that, for it gives the impressionist lyrics time to breathe and percolate the listener's senses. These are finely observed pieces, from the dreaminess of 'Faraway Eyes' to the vaudevillian feel of 'Excuse Me, Mr Hart', calculated to find favour, I think, with publishers and film makers, if not with A-list radio programmers.

The title track takes one right back to adolescence, its images pertinent to one but common to all, and Spell is just what it says, both literal and magical. It deserves our fullest attention.

A very fine record indeed.