Album: Nerina Pallot, Year of the Wolf (Geffen)

On her Geffen debut, Nerina Pallot seems to have reined in some of her musical ambitions, focusing on simple but stylish love songs.

Some appear to aim for an Adele-esque pared-down quality, with just vibrato guitar accompanying her impassioned delivery of "If I Lost You Now", and "This Will Be Our Year" arranged as a low-key soul ballad. Others are treated more liberally, producer Bernard Butler opting for a 60s-style pop classicism on tracks like the catchy "Put Your Hands Up" and the romping "Turn Me On Again", with its appeal to "fill my head with dumb desire", and the lyrical "All Bets Are Off", where sleek strings enswathe Pallot's vocal. But the impact fades in the album's later stages: "I Think" is trite in making light of problems, while "I Do Not Want What I Do Not Have" is lazy filler as witless as its title.

DOWNLOAD THIS Turn Me On Again; Put Your Hands Up; Butterfly