Rough Trade's album of the year in 2006 was Alela's "The Pirate's Gospel" and many critics have already started to fall over themselves with superlatives about her latest opus, due out this week. I'm liking a lot of it - the swooning pedal steel on "To Be Still", the perky dance through the meadows that is "Dry Grass & Shadows" and the sparky, sparkly "White As Diamonds" but I did have to check the CD player display to see if a few of the songs had changed. There is no denying that Diane can sing but there is not the variety I was hoping for and, apart from "The Ocean" and "Tatted Lace", some of this album does wander off into hippy-dom via folksy paths without much of a challenge. Cara Dillon does similar and I think Eileen Rose does it better and add Vashti Bunyan and Laura Viers into the mix and you have an idea of the ballpark. Tell you what though, the 5 best tracks mentioned above really are very very yummy and worth the admission alone. One to watch.