Scary Fragile - Butterfly Boucher

It's been a long time since 2003's Flutterby, the rather wonderful debut from the Australian born Butterfly Boucher (yes, that is her REAL name) although the five year gap doesn't tell the whole story. This album was completed three years ago but seemingly fell victim to the 21st Century need to label every music "product" as something tangible.

As the lady herself stated, "they say [my music] is too quirky. They always say it's too pop for the indie scene and too indie for the pop scene." With backing like that from your record company, it's perhaps not a surprise that Boucher parted company with them, but at least she had the good fortune to work out a deal to keep the masters of her new album, hence the "DIY" release of her second album.

You might think that the opener, I Found Out, has been added since parting company from her label with lyrics such as “I found out I can only be who I am. I can only do what I can. I won’t try to describe the relief". Thankfully though, Boucher seems able to get MOST of this out of her system in the opener, leaving the listener to concentrate on the quality of her songs.

And whilst, as a whole, the album may not quite live up to the excellent debut, it has more than it's fair share of highlights.

Lead single Gun For A Tongue is a seductive, if slightly creepy, number whilst Just One Tear is a rocker that for some reason reminded me of Ladyhawke, without actually sounding anything like her whatsoever. Keeper comes across as almost a long-lost Bond theme whilst Bright Red might well have proved to be the "hit" that Boucher was presumably under immense pressure to produce if only her record company had given it the chance.

Having been absent for so long, it's almost tempting to look no further than being pleased she's back at all, but thankfully Butterfly Boucher has also returned with a very good album which proves that Flutterby was no fluke. One can only hope we get the third installment before 2014.