27 July 2009
Mojo Magazine
John Bungey


Former next big thing in jazz vocals continues down the singer songwriter path.

The singer who found Universal's efforts to turn her in a retro chanteuse too stifling continues to develop the sparky, imaginative writing style she debuted on Between The Wardrobe And Me. A series of twilight characters is unveiled in melodic, acoustic arrangements, full of shifting textures and moods. So Worn Out is stylish pop, My Mini And Me is the best blues you'll hear this year about an old car, but the hurly-burly of Jane Into A Beauty Queen shows how she sometimes over-complicates. Her singing -warm, soulful, and with a husky hint of Elkie Brooks - is classy throughout. But for all the invention, it's a more traditional jazz ballad, Some Days I Forget, that is the showstopper here. Ironically, it's just the sort of song Universal would have loved her to sing.