Claire Martin - Old Boyfriends (1994)

On her third album British vocalist Claire Martin fires a salvo of polished intelligence across a collection of songs harvested not just for her obvious joy in singing them, but equally because of their eclectic roots. The faults are few and far between, measured only by the greatness of the tradition that she folloes. To her credit she has already found her voice.
Her handling of the title track's fragile melody reveals a comfortable maturity, a woman already grown up. The closing track Killing Time, is given the right measure of poignancy underlined by chief collaborator Steve Melling's piano...
With a voice which is persuasive, expressive and able to command admirable depth, Martin is at home with both swing and ballads...Her demend for incisive, often sardonic lyrics causes the net to be cast wide, although their is never a hint of political correctness cutting off the oxygen of creative impulsiveness.