This, Barbara’s first full length release was the first disc to drop through our doors in the New Year, and we can only hope that it’s representative of the quality to come over the next twelve months. The immediate standout is Barbara’s voice – smooth, expressive, individual and without affectation. She glides over and around the mainly acoustic arrangements beautifully; it’s all so very easy on the ear. The gracefulness of the vocals belies the lyrics though – sharp, insightful and often with real bite, mixing the two together creates a very attractive whole. The acoustic backdrop has subtlety and depth, there’s a wide variety of instrumentation on offer that really enrich the 10 songs, and the dynamics on offer in all departments generate an album that will pays dividends over repeated plays. There’s a good variety of styles on offer from the poppy melodies of ‘Charm Bracelet’ and ‘I Wish’, to the sparse arrangements of ‘Soap & Water’ and ‘Throwing Bones’ , but the album has a coherent sound and feel
throughout, everything fits and works together perfectly. Regardless of the style, the production is all handled with a real lightness of touch, the disc is really well balanced and sounds excellent from start to finish.
‘Pose While It Pops’ is a top class album, and one that fans of singer/songwriters should put at the top of their ‘to do’ lists.

£11.99 now deleted, sorry