Brooke Sharkey - A Taste of Truth

Brooke Sharkey is an exceptionally well-travelled, bi-lingual 22-year-old with a technically good voice and nice acoustic guitar skills. I'd like to say that she writes exceptional music too, but that would be a flat-out lie. The first track is more of a mood than a song, featuring a steady three-chord pattern which churns round for a full five minutes. The first half of the song is in French, the second is in Hippy: "If we were water/ Follow the cycle and meet up again/ We would touch as water". This is the kind of song you'd expect to hear on a Greenpeace promotional film in 1992 and basically nowhere else. Predictably, bongos come in for a verse or two to re-enforce the whole earthy vibe. I can't condone it, sorry.

'Home' is equally lifeless and equally lacking in ideas: there are only about three lines of lyrics, and basically one riff in the whole thing, and none of it is engaging. 'Our Ways' features lines sung half in English and half in French which is a cool gimmick, but the plonking gypsy-folk backing is, once again, hopelessly dull. If you're going to treat the world of traditional music like a pick 'n' mix stand you may as well sound like you're enjoying it.

If 'Music in the Park' is a big improvement, maybe it's because the wishy-washy spiritualism and cultural appropriation have taken a back seat. Instead here's a simple ode to music and nature that basks in warm, layered acoustic guitars and piano. Sharkey's vocals are much better too, with far fewer self-conscious flutters and fashionable tics: she sounds lighter, more at ease.

'Les Amoreux' sounds like a Laura Marling song, which is to say pretty, but unremarkable. Still, a tonne of people seem to think Marling is the best thing since sliced bread, so maybe Brooke Sharkey (any relation to Feargal, you think?) has what it takes after all.