I was turned on to this album after hearing All For Believing, Higgins’ first song that she astonishingly wrote when she was only 16. Maybe I was expecting too much from The Sound of White, but I was less impressed by it than On A Clear Night. Higgins had not quite perfected the variety and edginess evident in her later work. That’s not to say it was a bad album by any means, and surely it will grow on me as I listen to it over the coming weeks. I was just hoping for the near perfection found in her second album, which admittedly is a little unfair of me.

Despite my lackluster review, there are a few stand-out songs, including All For Believing and Scar. If you were a fan of On A Clear Night, this album is still a solid addition to your collection. Her voice continues to be unique, refreshing, and a pleasure to listen to. If there was this much improvement between her first two albums, I am now awaiting her next release even more eagerly.

3/5

On A Clear Night is a fantastic album that I ended up liking even more than I thought I would. The diversity of the songs really shows her breadth as an artist. She plays both guitar and piano very well, and that’s complemented by her killer vocals. Her voice is reminds me a bit of Norah Jones, who is one of my favorite female vocalists. Surprisingly, you don’t get too much of an Australian accent when she’s singing except for in one or two songs. Ms. Higgins is probably known best for her single Where I Stood, which I hadn’t heard before. It grew on me the more I listened to it. The songs 100 Around The Bends and Steer both grabbed my attention as upbeat guitar songs, while Sugarcane was an fantastic piano ballad. Peachy even shows an angry side to her music, which was very refreshing. All-in-all, I felt it was a fairly well-rounded album with no two songs sounding too much alike.

It’s available for purchase as a CD or an MP3 album from Amazon, and it comes highly recommended.

4.5/5