Claire Martin - Perfect Alibi - Mojo

Over the last few albums Claire has been gradually re-inventing herself as a Dustyesque repertoire artist of choice rock-era pop. Always having a beady eye for the coolest Tin Pan Alley off-cuts and the quirkiest jazz cabaret pieces, she also occasionally crept Nyro, Mitchell and Thomas Dolby material under the gate on her straight jazz albums. Her previous album Take My Heart went the whole hog, however, even allowing Noel Gallagher to co-produce an unwise version of Help. Perfect Alibi is more convincing, a fine set of under-exposed pieces from Hendrix, The Stylistics and David Cassidy, all dressed up in beautifully chamber-orch-pop with Claire clearly enjoying the flexibility the material brings to her vocal personality. Good enough to start a trend.