Album: Rumer, Seasons of My Soul (Atlantic)

Having spent ten years becoming an overnight sensation, Rumer's debut album comes with tributes from luminaries such as Burt Bacharach, who flew her to Los Angeles just to hear her sing.

It's easy to understand why: there's a maturity about Rumer's delivery that sets her apart from all the Duffys and Adeles, though the spooky similarity to Karen Carpenter on songs such as "Come To Me High" can be off-putting. Small wonder, then, that Steve Brown's arrangements follow the Bacharach formula of coffee-toned horns sweetened with strings. Rumer's songs, meanwhile, have a streak of melancholia that speaks of painful experience: the haunting "Aretha", the best thing here, posits the soul legend as comforting confidante for a small child's anxieties, without vainly trying to emulate Aretha's style.

DOWNLOAD THIS Aretha; Am I Forgiven?; Slow; Blackbird