Gin Wigmore - Extended Play.

New Zealand native Gin Wigmore's debut EP delivers the promise of a unique, new (if slightly divisive) voice in the crowded alternative singer/songwriter field. Wigmore hopped aboard the major-label train (Universal Australia) after nabbing the top prize in 2004's International Songwriting Contest in New York with "Hallelujah," a deeply personal lament for the then 16-year-old's deceased father. That song and four others make up the guts of Extended Play, a collection of bluesy, slightly off-kilter folk-pop that channels Feist and Fiona Apple with a twist. That twist would be Wigmore's impossible to ignore vocal style, a bourbon and unfiltered cigarette siren that sounds like the middle of a Joanna Newsom and Axl Rose teeter-totter. The production is top-notch, boasting soulful Tom Waits-inspired horn sections, thoughtful lyrics and sass to spare, but Wigmore's heavily inflected vocal acrobatics keep this one firmly in the love it or hate it column. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide