Maeve O'Boyle - All My Sins - R2 Rock'n'Reel

To call one's debut album All My Sins is to lay oneself open to all sorts of trouble from ‘witty' critics. Alternatively, it displays a remarkable degree of self-confidence and so it is with Maeve O'Boyle who is case in the mould of Eleanor McEvoy - an acoustic singer-songwriter with a blues-tinged voice, who really should be playing a Strat, blessed with an enviable supporting cast of musicians and co-writers.

The album gets off to a dramatic starts with ‘Old Greenwich Time', co-written with Ricky Ross, and ‘The Place You Became', both taut, mid-paced rockers. ‘Carnival Attraction', built on the foundation of Liam Bradley's drums and Laurence Cottle's bass, has a harder edge in complete contrast to the fragility of the preceding ‘Butterfly'. Some of the songs date from when Maeve was just thirteen and one of these, ‘Facing Home', was an initial favourite while another, ‘Taxi', suggests either a troubled childhood or too many American movies.

At forty minutes, All My Sins is short by modern standards - the length of a vinyl album, in fact - and consequently there is no padding. This is a debut that promises much for the future.