Amy Studt - My Paper Made Men (19 Recordings) ***

11:31am Friday 18th April 2008

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CHEWED up and spat out by the pop world while still in her teens, former Bournemouth schoolgirl Amy Studt nearly turned her back on music to wait tables in Cornwall. Fact.

That she didn't should be a source of pleasure to anyone in need of a female singer songwriter to bridge the gap between the bedroom angst of Avril Lavigne and the womanly knowledge of Kate Bush, whose long shadow casts an impossible standard for Amy's second album to escape.

Still, it's a bold work. From the tangled emotions of recent single Furniture, through the concrete façade of Sad Sad World and the fun-pursuing Chasing the Light, 22-year-old Amy straddles pathos and the obvious without sounding overly contrived.

She takes plenty of chances with the music as well.