(Virgin)

By Hannah Clemens

A character in a Neil Gaiman comic book once said, “A boring word like woman takes all the fun out of being a girl.” It’s true – millions of post-feminist women have forgotten the fun of being a girl, but fortunately KT Tunstall is not among them. Unabashedly feminine and spunkier-than-thou, she can shift from vulnerable to vicious in an instant, and so does her new album, just beginning to make the rounds in the U.S.
Picture KT Tunstall on the tiny stage of a downtown dive, mostly obscured by a cloud of cigarette smoke. What you can see from the bar: motorcycle boots stomping in time to the music, a cute skirt and jacket, wispy dark hair, and a guitar. What you can hear: not much during softer songs like “Heal Over” and “Silent Sea,” in which Tunstall’s blithe yet street-smart voice glides to the upper limits of its range. But when she starts “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree,” an epic multi-layered blues/folk hybrid that demands audience participation and strictly bans sitting still, all eyes are on her and no conversation detracts from the raw power of her voice. And if you clap nice and loud at the end, she rewards you with a dimpled grin. She’s not the first person to use a looping pedal at shows, but she’s got to be the cutest, and she knows it.
Most of the songs on Tunstall’s debut, “Eye to the Telescope,” are slow burns compared to the undeniable energy with which she performs. Her often gritty voice is smoothed over with reverb and complemented with backing vocals and other instruments. Sometimes the ethos is lost, but never for very long. Even when a gussied-up KT sends sultry gazes into the camera during the “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” video, the truth is still in there: Tunstall (who busked for spare change on the streets of Vermont at the age of seventeen, and learned early how to charm a crowd) belongs on that smoky stage, inviting you to clap and whoop along. All the production in the world can’t hide that.
Tunstall has been generating a U.K. following since last year, but only recently released her debut in the States. If you listened to streaming or satellite radio anytime in the past eighteen months, you’ll probably recognize singles “Black Horse,” “Suddenly I See,” and “Other Side Of The World.” Though KT slows down the action a little with “Universe & U,” “False Alarm,” and “Stoppin The Love,” those are the songs that stay with you long after their radio-ready predecessors fade – they are soaked in mellow keyboards, handclaps, and sedate backing vocals that call to mind the gravediggers at the end of “O Brother, Where Art Thou.” They’re the kind of shamelessly sentimental serenades you secretly want to receive on a mix CD.
KT and her music will make you want to buy shoes, give flowers to strangers, and smile more. If that doesn’t entice you to listen, maybe you should reevaluate how you feel about music. And girls.