Courting conventionality has been a Nell Bryden marker post since she broke the UK market as recently as 2008. While not wishing to make her sound ‘boring’, I am afraid that it is her own unique brand of normality that means she is eminently recognisable as a performer, thanks to a substantial pair of lungs and her crystal clear delivery, but there is no single element of breaking away from the retrospective soul, hints of bluegrass and American jazz that permeate her style.

Yet, that is also Nell’s magic. She is not trying to bend her voice to different extremes, like some solo artistes. However, she is not straying into totally populist territory either. In fact, what you receive is what it states on the album cover; good, honest vocals, allied to inspired lyrics and a pleasantly illuminated back-drop of broad-brush American values. From the boppy title-track opener, ‘What Does It Take?’, with its brilliant splash of roadhouse gospel, which allows Nell to explore her soaring pitch and arpeggios, to the steel guitar of ‘Not Like Loving You’, with its ever-so-country vibe, the production values are impeccable and Nell’s annunciation is sheer perfection.

The album contains eleven tracks of easy listening pleasantness, with superb accompaniment from her backing band, which consists largely of session musicians, although her constant is in playing acoustic guitar and allowing her vocals to wash strongly over the instruments. It is said that Nell sold a Milton Avery painting that she found in her New York attic as a means to fund her music career and I happen to think that it was an apposite move, as she has enjoyed blanket British radio airplay with the seventh track on this album, ‘Second Time Around’, which coincides with the fact that this is her second album (the ‘troubled’ follow-up), with which I do not think she will experience an ounce of backlash. Great listening from a satisfyingly normal MOR singer-songwriter.