GOD BLESS FIONA!!!!!

FROM THE SCOTSMAN. MONICA QUEEN: RETURN OF THE SACRED HEART VERTICAL, £13.99 THE singer best known as the guest vocalist on Belle & Sebastian’s Lazy Line Painter Jane and the voice of country rockers Thrum reins in her natural gutsy holler on her second solo album, giving a consistently controlled yet vulnerable performance to rank alongside her debut Ten Sorrowful Mysteries. Again the tone is melancholy but devotional, the arrangements sparse and simple - often just Queen’s tremulous voice and her partner Johnny Smillie’s plangent guitar - and the recording lo-fi, but Return of the Sacred Heart is pregnant with atmosphere. There are moments which recall the ethereal spaciness of the Cocteau Twins, and definite traces of the portentous gospel rumble of Nick Cave on the title track. Another gem from a somewhat overlooked Scottish talent. FIONA SHEPHERD