SOMER BAD SOMER GOOD SOMERVILLE - what an angel.

MONICA QUEEN Return of the Sacred Heart Vertical Three years on from the fragile masterpiece, Ten Sorrowful Mysteries, Monica Queen and producer Johnny Smillie have gone one better numerically, delivering 11 celestial pop songs. Extending the religious motif of the title, this sounds like it was recorded in a chapel in a misty valley, the musical arrangements restrained as if in awe of Queen’s voice. Occasionally so fragile it hurts - ‘Beautiful Song’ and the opening ‘Fly Away’ being two cases in point - this record shimmers rather than shakes. It seems so intensely personal that listening to it almost feels like an intrusion, but the title track and ‘Breathe Beauty’ are utterly compelling. FROM SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY.