Emiliana Torrini
Me and Armini
(Rough Trade)

Torrini is frustrating. The Icelandic chanteuse is gifted both in terms of her gorgeous natural voice and her perceptive pop songwriting (she co-wrote ‘Slow’ for Kylie, for example). But she also likes to muck about, and this third album has plenty of half-baked ideas not really converted into successful tunes. Genre-hopping like crazy, there’s sunny ska in the title track, orchestral pop on ‘Heard it All Before’, fuzzy rockabilly in ‘Jungle Drum’ and loads more. It’s distinctly hit and miss, but when she gets it right, like on the achingly beautiful folk of ‘Beggar’s Prayer’, it’s mesmerising. Sadly this happens too infrequently.