Rebecca Ferguson
Superwoman

What distinguishes a "true artist" from a talent show product? Usually, it's talent... or at least in Italy that's the case, abroad at least that's present, so that's not the issue. Then what is? Could it be the voice? No, even the voice is generally more than present. Could it be the songs? It's true that they're often weak, but it's also true that the competition doesn't offer much better lately. Could it then be authenticity, that thing that allows a singer to appear at least credible without smelling of plastic every note they emit? I'd say so, considering the main problem with competitors on shows like "X-Factor" and "The Voice" is precisely their inability to sustain a career outside the program. Now, what does all this have to do with Rebecca Ferguson? Simple: she is the exception that proves the rule, not so much for credibility (some, like Carrie Underwood and Adam Lambert, have managed to earn it in their own way), but for the genuineness of the character and the artist herself.

Rebecca is indeed a bit like the British Nathalie: despite her origins, she is not artificial, she doesn't feel like plastic, and from her debut, she has asserted herself with an attitude that is hardly contrived, almost as if she had been taken and put on stage just as she is. The same goes for her music: even while offering in "Superwoman," her third album, a rather traditional soul laced with a bit of gospel, Ferguson manages to craft a pleasant album because it is honest and heartfelt. Nothing new under the sun, after all in England her genre has been overused for at least a decade, yet she manages to handle it more than well thanks to compositional taste and interpretative skills well above average: the writing is very dry and direct, the melodies are right, and throughout the album there is no virtuosity or vocalism that feels out of place. Rebecca sings only as much as necessary to move and does so with crystalline elegance and class in ballads like "Hold Me" and "I'll Meet You There," in Motown-style numbers like "Don't Want You Back" and the title track, and in songs that hint at more modern sounds like "Bones" and "Oceans."

By the end of the listen, you are pleasantly impressed by this girl's talent, who perhaps does not have the ambition to become the new Aretha Franklin, yet she comes closer than many other vocal virtuosos who are, however, given generally poor pieces (see Beyoncé and Jennifer Hudson). It's a shame that all this is partly penalized by a production that is indeed refined, coherent, but also a bit too slick: granted, we're talking about an album far from over-produced, with some grittier sound or even just less polished, the album as a whole would surely have benefited. In short, the interpreter is there, the pieces too, so why add artificiality where it's not needed?