New BootsRubyworks ****

The sheer visceral energy bursting from between the covers of Wallis Bird's second collection could kick-start an entire economy (or at least a small town populated by listeners with eardrums hungry for a stimulus package of their own). Two years in gestation, following Bird's much-heralded 2007 debut, Spoons, New Bootsreflects all the blood, sweat, tears and horizon-wide grins of a musician with lots more musical ideas ricocheting around her camper van. Bird's sense of herself is as steadfast as Ani diFranco's and as unapologetically bolshie as Chrissie Hynde's. She surrounds herself with a cacophony of arrangements that draw with magpie-like voraciousness on pop, rock, reggae and indie influences. Akin to an early-morning ice-cold shower - but sprinkled with stardust. www.walllisbird.com SIOBHÁN LONG

Download tracks:To My Bones, Measuring Cities