Mary Coughlan: Red Blues

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * * )

Irish singer Coughlan was formerly known as much for her fondness of a tipple as her few excellent albums of soulful folk and jazzy blues in the late-80s. That's what you get for calling an album Tired and Emotional and then living up to it.

Her woozy treatment of Blue Light Boogie here might suggest that little has changed. But it has.

Where once she dug deep into a lyric, you get the sense here she is content to work the surfaces and skate on the strength of her rich and resonant voice. The songs, which include You Can Leave Your Hat On, Black Coffee and Pull Up to the Bumper, go undeveloped and unexplored (which is either tantalising or irritating) and the band, with Frank Mead on sometimes busy sax and Madagascar Slim on electric guitar, carry much of the weight.

Coughlan followers won't be disappointed by hearing her again, but this is smooth and unengaged in comparison with her early work.

Check her sense of non-attachment in the emotionally wrenching I'd Rather Go Blind. She sounds like she's only just been handed the lyrics.

Label: T&M/Elite