Music Reviews

Eye To The Telescope Relentless/Virgin Music •••½ Sound ••••

The opening cuts on this impressive debut present KT Tunstall, a Scottish-bred songwriter, as a radio-friendly unit-shifter, sleek and melodic to the ear. It's pop music with an education and deserving of an audience. But there's a darker, jazzier side that dominates Eye to the Telescope the deeper you explore. Tempos occasionally slow, drama increases, and arrangements become spare - less Sheryl Crow, more Rickie Lee Jones. In the end, Tunstall emerges as a formid­able writer executing a contemporary, adult sound that's equal parts folk, pop, and blues.