Album: Nadine Shah, Love You Dum and Mad (Apollo)

On paper, Shah is the perfect artist for our times: a doomy but not-too-depressing cross between Anna Calvi and Florence – Norwegian-Pakistani heritage … blog heat describing her as "the female Nick Cave" … and so on.

In practice, though, Shah's debut album never quite lives up to the hype/promise. The backing music is grabby, her voice is great, but the songs don't always soar as high as they might. Could be a grower. Enough promise here to keep listening.