AMANDA MARSHALL -- Amanda Marshall (Epic)

Currently on the road with Tears For Fears, the debut CD from this 23-year-old Canadian singer has been getting a lot of publicity in the last few months. Several people are calling her the next Alanis Morissette. My impression of her is more along the lines of lesser known (yet still very talented) artists like Kerri Anderson, Tasmin Archer, or maybe Mae Moore. She has a good, strong voice, only without Morissette's angst

The first single here in the US, "Birmingham", is easily the best song on the CD. "Let it Rain" (not the Eric Clapton song) and "Last Exit to Eden" are good too. The rest of the songs are pretty uneventful, except for "Beautiful Goodbye", where Marshall sounds like a graduate of 'the Ann & Nancy Wilson school of oversinging'.

Marshall's debut isn't great, but it isn't bad either. It's a good CD to wake up to, or to put on around dinner time (sans "Beautiful Goodbye"), or for those times when you just want to hear something a little more laid back than say.. the new Soundgarden CD. Providing she gets the necessary exposure, along with improved songwriting, Amanda Marshall has the potential for a bright future in the music business.