Me and Armini - Emilíana Torrini

Emilíana Torrini is now best know for her work on the Lord Of The Rings soundtrack, or perhaps through co-writing Kylie Minogue's Slow, although most would probably still not recognise her name. After a handful of releases in her native Iceland, she first came to wider prominence with 1999's Love In The Time Of Science, a brilliant slice of electronically driven "chill out" music. It was 2005 before she resurfaced on album, with the patchy Fisherman's Woman, a more sparse and acoustically pared back version of Emiliana which failed to totally convince me. It was good in parts but was perhaps a little too gentle for it's own good.

2008's Me And Armini merges the two previous styles with the more gentle side of 2005's album intact but with a little more urgency and pace injected. The end result is really rather good indeed.

Lead single Me And Armini mixes a lilting reggae sound with a blissfully chilled out arrangement and if there was any justice, international airplay would be a certainty. Chances are that it is too unique for that, but that shouldn't spoil your enjoyment of what is a fantastic track.

Other great tracks include Big Jumps, which is quite frankly simply adorable, and the apparent next single Jungle Drum, which adds a vibrancy and excitement to Torrini's sounds that was missing from Fisherman's Woman.

However, as if to attempt to label me a hypocrite, even on a track such as Hold Heart, which is little more than her backed by an acoustic guitar, she proves to be stunning.

Whilst perhaps not quite managing to surpass Love In The Time And Science, this is still a fantastic album which deserves a wide audience.