Album: Holly Miranda, The Magician's Private Library (XL Recordings)

If there's one major British label you can rely on to release only music you really ought to hear, it is XL, home to the White Stripes, Radiohead, MIA and, most recently, Gil Scott-Heron.

Sadly, Holly Miranda falls more firmly into the label's Jack Peñate camp – meaning that this debut album from the 27-year-old New Yorker is more OK than XLent. Usually a solo acoustic performer, Miranda here turns to Dave (TV on the Radio) Sitek, whose trip-hoppy production mostly makes TMPL sound like generic 1990s wine-bar music.