JENNIFER TERRAN
The Musician
Continental Song City CSCCD 1029

ALL OF you wondering whether Kate Bush is going to release another album, or if Tori Amos will ever make another record as good as her debut, can stop bothering with such side issues. Here’s the album you’ve been waiting for. Never heard of Jennifer Terran? Nope, neither had I. And, as this is her third album, I feel vaguely embarrassed about that. You, on the other hand, have every excuse, because she’s not exactly all over the radio. And that fact appears to have inspired The Musician’s centrepiece, Mad Magdaline — the story of a musician who kills the record-company boss who won’t give her a deal. She tells him that “there’s more music than what you hear on the f***ing radio, you ignorant bastard”. Then she shoots him.

And the music behind this story? A melody that could only have been written by the combined talents of Laura Nyro, Carole King, Tori and Kate. Or, it turns out, Terran. I don’t think there’s a duff track. Her voice is staggering. And you’ve got to love someone who can yell out a full-on, Springsteenesque “1-2-3-4!” to announce the arrival of a violin. I’d happily trade a million Dido albums for one copy of The Musician. Not, you understand, that I have a million Dido albums. But somebody has. Three stars