Sharon Van Etten – Epic

You can’t argue with statistics: if the bland outweighs the good, disappoint beckons. Quality ratios can be kind to the lengthy – an opus like The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs can absorb a duffer or two comfortably – or unsurvivable for the malnourished, as is the case with the misleadingly-named seven-track Epic.

It’s not bad by any means, but its eggs are stored in too few baskets, so when one track meanders and bores – the opening Cruel, say, though it has its accomplices – it cracks the remainder with it. Van Etten’s work is, luckily, easier to admire in slithers than slabs, the closing Love More being a moving and marvellous case in point.

Throughout, those appreciative of Aimee Mann’s balladry will find themselves in familiar territory, and might well judge Van Etten of equal grace. But those less charitable will hear only the seeds of excellence, and not its realisation. [Chris Buckle]