Shipbuilding E.P.

Tasmin Archer: Shipbuilding E.P. (EMI)

A four-song homage to Elvis Costello, this project fails because Archer is far too polite and sedated. The title track plays for safety by grabbing hold of the melody but throughout the four tracks, she seems strangely adrift of the lyrics as if they were untouchably beyond her on the other side of a plate-glass window. Probably the closest we’ll ever get to Karen Carpenter sings Elvis.