My Paper Made Men - Amy Studt

It's perhaps a sign of how Amy Studt's career went that this album has been out digitally for a year and I've only just got around to hearing it. Unfairly labelled a flop (her debut album sold a respectable 200,000 copies) I did like her debut album False Smiles. Ok, so it was possibly a little too close to Avril Lavigne for it to have been a coincidence but the likes of Just A Little Girl and Misfit were catchy little pop ditties and the album as a whole certainly suggested Studt was a girl worth taking a chance on.

Six years later (and having found out about being dropped by her label by reading the paper) My Paper Made Men will probably sink without trace (indeed, it may well already have done so come to think about it) but it proves that indeed, Studt wad worth taking a chance on.

The opening track, Sad Sad World is a dark, brooding song that packs an emotional punch, whist Changing The Light cranks up the rock guitar to full effect. The initial lilting vibe of One Last Cigarette couldn't be any different, but is also a winner. Indeed, Studt's voice is well suited to to vast number of styles, and it deserves it's place as the star of the show.

The one track that sounds most incongruous is Nice Boys, which is the song that most sounds like something off her debut. It's relative lack of punch on this collection at least proves that Studt has definitely moved on from her "old" sound.

Ultimately it doesn't quite show enough personality of it's own to really make a mark on you but it does confirm that Studt is a talent.