Having moved house recently, I took it upon myself to root around my old possessions and reflect on my adolescent years. During this clear-out I stumbled upon an old games console and a copy of GTA Vice City, a childhood gem. After playing GTA for a solid hour, Molly Burch’s Please Be Mine came on in the background – followed by something magical.

I started abiding the law on Vice City!?

Now I stop at red lights, let pedestrians cross the road and even helped fight crime – the 14 year old inside of me was fuming. Molly Burch’s album is truly something magical. I mean full change-the-way-you-play-a-game magical.

With Please Be Mine, Molly Burch has assembled a humdinger of a debut. Her classic soothing vocals, accompanied by Dailey Toliver on his chimey guitar (which I can just imagine being played through a beautiful Vox AC30). This is a record designed to unwind your soul at the end of a long day.

There are some superb lullabies on Please Be Mine. ‘Downhearted’, ‘Try’ and ‘Wrong For You’ are all plaintive little heartbreakers, but the more up-tempo ‘Torn To Pieces’ is also worthy of your attention, and ‘Not Today’ is a gorgeous 60’s girl group throwback Although the album does stray into benign She and Him territory, Burch’s extraordinarily warm and wide-ranging vocals keep everything on the right side of interesting.

Please Be Mine doesn’t have the feel of a debut album, Burch already sounds like a very accomplished singer-songwriter; a modern day Billie Holliday if you will. With a background in LA and Austin there aren’t many better places to start out as an artist.

Now back to the mean streets of Vice City, where I might look into getting an allotment or building a community theatre. 4/5