It’s been three years since KT Tunstall released her debut album “Eye to the Telescope.” In that time she secured a Mercury Music Prize nomination, outsold every other female artist in the UK in 2005, won a Brit Award, as well as the Ivor Novello Best Song Award and a Q Award for Track of the Year. She even ended up being Grammy nominated. So it’s pretty safe to say it was going to be a tough act to follow when it came to planning the second album.

But plan she did. The 31-year-old Scotswoman reckons the last three years changed her life… it didn’t alter her as person, but it raised the bar for her as an artist. She’s thankful for the fact that in a way she became a word-of-mouth phenomenon internationally, but plan to fully utilize that to her benefit. No resting on her laurels here. KT had a backlog of new songs she had to consider for what would become “Drastic Fantastic,” a title that popped into her head as she was writing in her journal on an aeroplane. We are dealing with an all-together braver KT… the album’s been heralded as a collection of thumping pop songs and intimate, often mysterious ballads… an album brim-full of powerful lyrics, bold, colourful melodies and the increasingly adventurous musicianship. Summarised, it boils down to one of the best releases of 2007 so far. Sheryl Crow must be kicking herself when she realizes that this is the direction she should’ve taken on her last album.

First single “Hold On,” is described by the artist as a song born out of dancehall beats, a song that took her five moths to get right because she feared it could end up sounding like the Gypsy Kings or cheesy R&B if done wrong. The song deals with a previous relationship and how it empowers you when you come out of something difficult. Good old KT, always looking for the positive in something. Other stand-out tracks are “Little Favours” and “If Only,” both with the same infectious hooks KT seems to have perfected and made her own.

“Beauty of Uncertainty” kicks off the more laid-back and sultry sound f the last 3 songs on the album. It’s a close-up ballad drenched in hushed intimacy and shows off the singer’s vocal range to full effect. When you think about it, you realise that as the album draws to an end, you actually get 3 KTs for the price of one. There’s glamour pop princess KT, there’s old folk KT and there’s candle-light, sultry KT. Not all that surprising really once you learn that, Tunstall showed an eager interest in music, from an early age, first listening to her older brother's metal from outside his bedroom door, later developing her own diverse tastes. She trained in classical piano and flute, while her characteristic singing was inspired by jazz's most inventive vocal stylist. And she herself reckons that she probably learned how to sing because someone gave her an Ella Fitzgerald tape. What else will you get than a diverse artist with a diverse approach to music. If you never got “Eye to the Telescope,” now’s the time to get the new KT. You’ll suddenly see she’s leaving quite a few more established artists in her wake