Never having professed to being a great fan of the female singer-songwriter, as there is a moderate number of them populating the music scene at present, you can hardly ignore them. I first heard about Florence Welch around the time of this year’s BRIT Awards and was unsurprised, when she received the ‘critic’s choice’, based on the release of just two singles (‘Kiss With A Fist’ and ‘Dog Days Are Over’), both of which feature on her debut album, ‘Lungs’.

However, I am not drawn-in by her apparent ‘fragility’. In fact, I think that 22 years old Florence knows her future pathway only too well. This album is delivered in a wonderfully assured manner, packed with the bitingly playful humour redolent of Lilly Allen, and even the occasionally annoying ‘glottal stop’ of Adele. However, instead of emulating these exceptionally well-known contemporaries, Florence possesses the wilful rockiness of Sonja Kristina, from her Curved Air days, perhaps laced with a soupcon of Suzi, from the peak of her And The Banshees period.

There is enough vibrant backdrop to her sound to even draw comparisons with the prog-rock scene, an arena within which I feel strongly that she should be considered. In fact, I would venture to suggest that she might even consider herself to be influenced by the grandees of that musical genre, many of whom I believe would welcome her to their fold. Her voice is strong and highly memorable and The Machine to which she would appear to be connected is clearly capable of matching her musical accompaniment requirements, with driving drum off-beats, some useful multi-tracking of her vocals, and copious multi-layered cacophony, drifting in and out as support to each of the twelve tracks (plus a ‘bonus’ track, ‘You’ve Got The Love’.) of this first-ever album.

It is a highly competent and engaging album sound that, unlike some of this ilk, will tolerate immediate replay, without resorting to the ‘skip’ button. I like her.