Anne Garner - Magic and Madness (CDR)

The best album I've heard so far this year is completely unsigned... just waiting for some savvy record label person to step in and sign up. If Kate Bush was new now, releasing The Kick Inside in 2006 but getting it produced by Trevor Horn then it might sound a little like Magic and Madness.

There are plenty of Bush-isms in Anne's voice and songwriting but unlike just about every other female singer around at the moment, there's no showboating, just pure melody and the occasional hint of a northern (?) accent.

I could spend all afternoon heaping hyperbole on this album - or coming up with comparisons to stir the imagination (a cross between Caroline Lavelle folkadelica and William Orbit-era Madonna being one) but instead I'll listen some more, because it's addictive, and wonder how it might leak out to a wider audience...