Belle Sony****

Having made inroads in Britain and Ireland with noughties albums Beautiful Collisionand Birds, a six-year break seems to have served Kiwi Bic Runga well. Belleis a fine example of modern pop music performed with subtlety and, most importantly, originality. The offbeat structure of tension- infused This Girl's Prepared for Waris paired beautifully with the slick strut of tunes like If You Really Doand Good Love. Variation abounds too, with an elegant adaptation of the theme of French television series Belle et Sébastienand the ethereal folk of Everything Is Beautiful and New. There are moments when you think Bellemight inadvertently turn out to be a coffee-table album, but they are few and far between on what is a graceful, sophisticated and eminently likeable collection. See bicrunga.com

Download tracks: This Girl's Prepared for War, Belle