“5 o’clock and a fire escape symphony”

According to me, Nerina Pallot’s 2001 album Dear Frustrated Superstar is the finest debut album by a solo singer/songwriter in the last 25 years. Depending on the song you’re listening to, it’s resolutely uncommercial or commercial. It can also depend on which part of a song you’re listening to.

So, I sat down last night with a bottle of Barolo to listen to her new one Fires. Once again, each song is a bit of both. And once again, it’s an album that seeps into you on first listen. This time around the arrangements and production are more sophisticated. Nerina still plays her songs on piano “except where it doesn’t happen” and guitars – electric, acoustic and bass, plus typical keyboardist splashes of synthesizers and ‘programming’. There’s no God or Blood is Blood on this album, but there are worthy alternatives, plus a couple of Tori-likes and possibly oodles of other influences, but who cares? It’s really damn fine.

Sophia is the song that jumped out yesterday. It’s the simplest arrangement on the album. The standard piano and vocals pairing, produced by Nerina. Her singing ability has grown significantly over the past four years, and during Sophia has never sounded so beautiful.

And msn.co.uk thinks Fires is her debut. Doh!