Cape Breton singer-songwriter Carmel Mikol has only been on the music scene for a few years, but she's already generated a small fan base amongst folk-country enthusiasts in Canada and the United States. For people who enjoyed Mikol's 2009 EP Lost Lives, her first full-length album In My Bones will be a welcome arrival. Mikol picks up from where she left off in her earlier work, and her established fans should get exactly what they wanted.

However, for non-devotees, Mikol's music has little to offer. Although the sparkly, upbeat title track "In My Bones" and the radio-friendly ballad "Georgia" are worth listening to, there is nothing on the album that people haven't heard a hundred times before. In My Bones is a fair start for a new artist, but it's dangerously close to sinking into the abyss of over-played pop-country shlock. Mikol needs to develop her music and make it more unique if she wants to become something special, and not another forgettable singer-songwriter.

Her songwriting and lovely voice show potential, but folk and country music fans looking for something interesting should wait and see how Mikol's music develops. In My Bones is disappointingly cliched, but if she works at it, Carmel Mikol's future albums could be anything but.

[ visit the artist's website ]