Gretchen Peters

With a string of hits for other performers, Gretchen Peters is very much a writers' writer, with Bryan Adams - co-writer of seven songs with her on his On A Day Like Today album - and Trisha Yearwood prominent on her list of admirers. Her own career has taken something of a back seat, but this self-titled album, her second, may go some considerable way to redressing the balance.

The eleven songs here are little vignettes of modern life, wittily observed insights of contemporary America, of which the opening track 'Souvenirs' sets the tone admirably. 'Love And Texaco' concerns itself with the image of the automobile as sex symbol, full of standard imagery which never - because it's so cleverly constructed - descends to the level of cliché. Elsewhere, the fate of 'Ed's First Wife' is a sly dig at modern marriage, wherein the wife has a lesbian fling.

Gretchen Peters is a fine writer with an eye for the unusual. This album is a testament to that talent.