Jeez, some of this is pretty painful. And that’s a shock, as I’ve heard Bethany Weimers live and found her impressive. She certainly has the attributes- an ultra-flexible clear alto voice, decent guitar and piano chops and a couple of decent songs. Some acts sound good on record and can’t cut it live- it is rare when the converse is true.

The EP starts with ‘I’ll be Waiting’, a gloomy pastoral fit for a modern-day Jane Eyre, consisting of vocal, acoustic and some plangent but basic violin. Bethany sings the opening section like a young Joan Baez but then ruins things by trying to sound like Grace Slick or PJ Harvey in the louder passages and the effect is overwrought and harsh. This forms a pattern for the rest of the record: when she underplays she’s rather good, but when she tries to raise the emotional level the quality of the singing plummets.

’Weapons and Things’is a good song and works well live. There is a genuine creepiness to some of the passages, which sound sophomoric on paper but when they are rendered by Bethany in an obsessive mutter make me glad I am not an ex-boyfriend:

‘ And oh, how my hate for you would put you first in line if I had a gun! It’s a good thing in England there are laws against weapons and killing and things.’

But again the high notes on record are pretty unpleasant to listen to. Whether it’s a technical problem or whether she’s striving too hard for effect, the result will send casual listeners running to the hills.

Much better is ‘Hold On’, a basic but effective torch ballad in which Weimers’ singing is throttled back a notch or two. As a song, it works OK on acoustic guitar, but might benefit by some subtle production: if the guy that produced Fiona Apples’s Tidal record is at a loose end, perhaps Weimers should sign him up

The record ends with ‘Trigger’ an obvious and tiresome anti-war rant. The only memorable thing about it is Weimers’ curious but energetic piano playing, a bizarre hybrid of Bob Dylan and Rachmaninov.

Bethany Weimers clearly has talent, but at the moment it is immature, unguided talent. The lyrics are vivid but unsophisticated, the arrangements are too basic for a modern audience and she doesn’t seem to be in control of her singing at certain points. Lots to fix then, but plenty of promise too.