Its a symptom of how little I looked forward to this internet-sales only, acoustic effort from KT Tunstall that it's been out for months before I've even bothered to check it out.
Of course it all depends on your perspective on these things. Some people will see this as Tunstall sticking it to the system and recording what she wants; others might see the low-key release strategy as a tacit acknowledgement that it's one for the afficianado's only.
As ever, your intrepid reviewer falls between the two stools. Let's get things straight off the bat, it's not a bad album. It's professionally done and certainly doesn't have the air of a rushed cash-in that one feared it might have.
Indeed her cover of Beck's Golden Age shows a certain charm and Boo Hoo is up there with anything off her Eye To The Telescope album.
But then, did we really need an acoustic version of Universe & U? Ditto Minature Disasters. And as nice as the new version of Throw Me A Rope is, does it come anywhere near the original and thus actually have a point to existing? Not quite.
And to be honest, two of the "new" tracks The Girl & The Ghost and One Day are not really up to the standard of the studio B-side versions we have already heard.
So all in all I can take or leave this album. It's a nice enough saunter through some album and b-side tracks done in a different style and if you're looking for something to plug the gap until her next "proper" album then this will do the trick. But I doubt in the weeks to come that this will be the album I pick up off the shelf if I'm in need of a Tunstall fix.
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