Alice Jago

Born Stubborn No label ***

Breezy and full of the kind of freshness that renders a radio signal radioactive, Dublin debutante Alice Jago knows a thing or two about life's minor chords. For starters, Jago has her fair share of neat rhyming couplets and louche-limbed melodies peeping out from under a look that's gazing decidedly askance at the world. Folk-fuelled arrangements, including banjo and bouzouki, call to mind The Be Good Tanyas on Cotton on Girl, but the wistful guitar lines of the closer, Lullaby, whisper of a kinship with the more left-field musings of Joanna Newsom. Truth is that, despite Jago's

Lisa Hannigan-esque quirky articulation, she’s a songwriter distinctly in control of her own voice – and it’s one that intimates sweet secrets well worthy of the listener’s cocked ear. A spirit-stirring debut. See alicejago.com

Download tracks: Lullaby, Born Stubborn,