It’s a sad irony that most pop female artists have no musical talent whatsoever and are in the music industry purely on their glamorous looks. With Louise Setara, this is not the case. She has the best of both worlds. From the streets of Reading, Louise Setara was spotted at just 15 years old buy record company. Her debut album ‘Still Waters’ really shows us why she was such a young age. It is amazing how mature Setara’s voice is for a girl her age, if not older.

Unlike many singers with the same vocal style a Setara’s today, Setara is not afraid to be different with her music. Too many pop artists release the same processed junk over and over. But Jazz, Soul, Gospel and Pop are just some of the genres you can here on ‘Still Waters’. Setara confidently shows off her range with tracks such as the emotional piano ballad ‘Love Me Still’ to the feel good, gospel ‘Sylvie’ impressively done in a cappella with Ladysmith Black Mazambo. Debut single ‘Wrong Again’ has a catchy piano riff at the intro with an up-beat build up throughout the song. The daydream like ‘Circle’ is simple but amazingly effective. ‘Still Waters’ also claims a few unusual covers such as Bob Dylan’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’ and Bruce Springsteen’s ‘If I Should Fall’ that have been moulded well to suit Setara’s voice.

However, the album does have a whiff of manufactured pop about it with tracks like ‘I Can Hurt’ which reeks of more mainstream than Simon Cowell’s socks. Elsewhere, the album becomes slightly repetitive: ‘By the Time’ and ‘Make You Feel My Love’ have bizarrely been placed next to each other in the album despite their similar corny feel. The lyrics are nothing special either; about 90% of the album is written about love tragedies and all the rest of it which many people have heard enough of for one lifetime.

This aside, Setara is set to have a bright future ahead of her. Even in her debut album there is an element of celebrity with one of the tracks (‘Cant Stop the River’) written by soul and R&B legend Seal. Setara also supported Beverly Knight on her latest tour. Most definitely, this is not the last we will hear of this girl.

James Bingham