The CD cover shots of the young London-born, NY based singer-songwriter Joanna Wallfisch projects an image that appears more sombre and intense than the carefree femininity evoked on previous CD sleeves and promotional material. While this is partly reflected in the darker tone of her songs of love and loss – at least picking the wrong guy is a way to avoid writer’s block – bitterness and cynicism are not her thing. Her tales not only have a reflective, poetic quality to them but a directness too, venturing into acoustic country-pop with songs such as the vocal looped ‘Runaway Child’ that has echoes of singer-songwriters such as Carole King or the recently departed Glen Campbell. Leonard Cohen sounds like an influence too, while other songs evoke 1990s folky art pop bands such as St Etienne and Neil Hannon’s Divine Comedy. The ‘backing band’ approach means she has unfortunately forgone the classical-oriented jazzy impressionism of the excellent Paris-based pianist Dan Tepfer who featured on previous albums The Origin of Adjustable Things and Gardens in My Mind. But Wallfisch’s songs stand on their own two feet, their intelligent craft largely eschewing MOR cliches.