Having impressed with her 2011 debut Step Up and her 2014 reworkings of classic Gershwin material on Porgy & Bess, vocalist and songwriter Fini Bearman delivers a stunning third album in the shape of Burn The Boat. Blurring the lines between jazz, folk and alternative pop, the album presents one of the most memorable collections of self-penned songs you'll hear this year, from the hypnotic, looping guitar motif of blissed-out opener ‘Sand On Sand’ to the alluring word-painting of ‘Such A Fool’ which sets ‘May My Heart Be Open To Little Birds’ by E. E. Cummings. Producing and mixing the album as well as overdubbing additional layers of guitar and synth, the studio wizardry of multi-instrumentalist Robin Mullarkey creates a more produced sound-world that takes Bearman's exquisitely crafted compositions to exciting new places. If ‘I'd Rather Have The Rain’ channels a folk-like simplicity, the chorus of ‘Maybe Next Year’ achieves lift-off by tapping in to an almost Todd Rundgren-like dramatic sensibility. ‘I Know I Alone’ sets one of Bearman's touchstones, the Portuguese poet and writer Fernando Pessao (the Pessoa setting ‘Fumei a Vida’ was one of the debut's standouts), while in a typically individual sleight of hand, ‘The Idea’ sees Bearman interpolating the brief, two-stanza Langston Hughes poem ‘Dreams’. In an album of standouts, the chorus of the sublime ‘Gone’, one of several songs that document the break-up of a previous relationship, is a thing of unsurpassed beauty.