
When the vocal is prominent in music I want it to be worth it's place; at best - either undeniably pleasing or irrespectively distinctive, at least - it shouldn't be inconclusive or insincere. The great soprano Sarah Leonard sits comfortably beside the terminal mumbler Mark E. Smith in my collection. Between the siren and the wail, there is room for every quirk, croak and crooner, but the mundane and the sham would do best to follow Brian Eno's self-imposed zipped-lip. Rachel Taylor Brown, Laura Barrett and Vanessa Peters each have 2009 CD releases, each are 'conceptual' albums [...]