Louise Burns - Mellow Drama (2012)

It's hard to ignore the sound of well placed hand claps, the echoing ring of a tambourine, chiming guitar and luscious vocals. That sound was fantastic sixty years ago, and those that follow the recipe with the required chops can make it sound great today. Louise Burns's debut album is full of dreamy numbers like opener ''Chinook (Sing From the Valley of Doubt'' and the playful Buddy Holly-esque first single ''What Do You Wanna Do''. Citing Mazzy Star, Patsy Cline, 60's girl groups and Johnny Marr as inspiration, Burns holds up to her heroes. She dazzles in the vocal department throughout the disc, but it's on the dangerously stripped-down ''Island Vacation'' that listeners will fully surrender to her charms.