Rox: Memoirs

Though she's just 21, south Londoner Roxanne Tataei has been around long enough to have acquired a fan club that includes Paul Weller and Mark Ronson. She's the latest in a line of young Brits who are sprucing up the poppy soul of the 1960s, and propitiously, her debut arrives while Winehouse, Duffy and Adele are otherwise occupied. Rox's songs are all concerned with relationships, which she writes about with teenage romanticism; there's no cynicism at all in the morose Forever Always Wishing or the Phil Spector-indebted My Baby Left Me. Conversely, her vocals are elegant, and she never wastes a note, whether the song is a trip-hop weepie (Page Unfolds) or a Motown-influenced dance item (Do As I Say). This is incredibly catchy pop – so what if Rox has failed to reinvent the wheel?