Sara Bareilles: 'Little Voice'

Sara Bareilles doesn't fit into any particular music scene. An ivory-tinkler who grew up wanting to be on The Mickey Mouse Club, with the soulful croon of an American Idol starlet and a feisty, independent spirit akin to Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morissette, she's undoubtedly got talent, but she's also a marketing nightmare for any record label.

Luckily, Bareilles has something pretty big working in her favour - her killer debut single, 'Love Song'. This rousing piano ballad with a whopping great chorus, written to shut up her pushy record label, has recently become a smash on both sides of the Atlantic. In fact, it's currently the most-played song on British radio.

Unfortunately, Bareilles never manages to match it on Little Voice. The appeal of 'Love Song' stemmed largely from its jaunty pop melody, but just as important were the intriguing lyrics about refusing to bow down to record company demands. Her songwriting elsewhere just isn't as subtle or inspired.

By teaming up with long-time Tori Amos collaborator Eric Rosse, Bareilles inevitably invites comparisons to the 'Cornflake Girl' singer. Sadly, she has no designs on Amos's inventive and eccentric style, and too often plays it safe, spending the majority of the album weaving traditional tales of heartache and aspirational love. It's unlikely Amos would ever release a track as trite and cliché-ridden as 'Fairytale', whose closing line goes: "The story needs some mending and a better happy ending."

Comparisons between Bareilles and baroque pop singer Fiona Apple are just as wide of the mark. While Bareilles's breathtaking vocals are a match for Apple in terms of technique, she never utilises them to the same devastating effect. She should sound lovelorn and on the edge of despair on the Elton John-esque 'Love on The Rocks', but, as if often the case here, she simply comes off like a cruise ship singer.

There are occasional glimmers of brilliance on Little Voice, such as album closer 'Gravity', on which Bareilles delivers a goosepimple-inducing vocal that would be the envy of any diva. The stripped-back, cinematic 'City' is equally impressive. Alas, moments such as these are few are far between, serving to highlight the predictability and safeness of the rest of the record. While Bareilles may offer a different slant on the over-populated singer-songwriter genre, it's merely a new shade of grey, not a colourful evolution.