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Mon, 29 Aug 2005

KT Tunstall

KT Tunstall, Eye to the Telescope
LP, Relentless, EMI

So, The Guardian thinks she is the new Janis Joplin and the totally naff, totally out of touch Sunday Times reckons she is a truly special new talent. What do we make of that, and should we bother to make anything of it? The Guardian reviewer should be sent off to listen to Big Brother and the Holding Company which, I think, was exactly one LP of brilliance and raw power. All the rest of poor Janis's oeuvre was manipulated bullshit presented by yesterday and today's bad people -- Big Music. No, KT Tunstall is not a new Janis Joplin, thank goodness for KT. Janis hung her nerve ends out for us and perished every night and on every line of song and dope and alcohol.

KT is altogether a more polite thing. Sure she has soul, and in comparison with the recent past of recording history she has absolute bucketloads of it, but this has few raw nerve ends and fewer orgasmic moments. Maybe it's politically correct soul -- a sign of the times. She will sell a lot of this. No question. It's smooth. It has craft. It has whispery moments. It will be played in a certain sort of restaurant.

(thunderfinger)

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