KT Tunstall: Eye to the telescope

Herald rating: * * * *

Just when the quality female singer-songwriter cache seems to have all but dried up, along comes a 29-year-old former hippy who sounds like Cerys Matthews with balls and much better songs.

KT Tunstall's unlikely breakthrough came when US rapper Nas pulled out of BBC music show Later ... with Jools Holland and she was drafted in as an emergency replacement. Her sassy performance of Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, a bluesy soliloquy about trusting your instincts, perfectly showcased her knack for writing accessible pop with a folksy edge. You can bet everyone from Stevie Nicks to Joss Stone and Norah Jones would have been jealous.

Since then, her album has made its unlikely home in Britain's top 10, where it probably appeals to the middle-of-the-road dinner party set and pop fans looking for something more genuine than the schmaltz usually dominating the airwaves. Even the Cure's Robert Smith is reportedly a fan.

It's not hard to see why. Proving you can be both gritty and girly, Tunstall's voice is powerful and rocky enough to carry the album's uplifting anthems yet sensitive enough to deliver the quiet ballads without melting into the beige background where the Didos and Norahs roam. Clear, sultry and soulful, she's closer to Carol King and Joni Mitchell than the wishy-washy sensibilities of her contemporaries.

Perhaps it comes from the years she spent trying to convince record execs she was worth a shot but Tunstall's tenacity comes across in her strong, self-assured, songwriting.

Whether her voice is soaring on the instantly hummable Another Place to Fall or the liberating Suddenly I See, getting delicate and raspy on the exquisite Silent Sea or the dreamy Under the Weather, Tunstall has a knack for expressing her perfectly formed pop vision in a way that is both tough and tender.

Look through this telescope and you'll see a bright new star.

Label: Relentless/EMI