I'm a bit rushed tonight: Gmail Swap is blowin' up a bit, and I want to try to keep on top of it. Still - I've got time for you, dear readers, if you'll just spare me your ears.

Two tracks by Jem, a terrific Welsh singer who takes a tiny bit of Avril Lavigne, a little bit of Nelly Furtado, a larger bit of Beth Orton (or maybe Sia), and then makes the product her own. Finally Woken is a delightful, varied album - and she wrote and co-produced the whole thing. Terrific. [buy]

Jem - "24". Worked-up strings with crunching TaTU guitars and a beat that surges like something from the soundtrack to Alias. Subtle production touches - a muted bell, the flicking guitar-strings that open the song - give it an unexpected weight, a surprising dark pop power. I like the way the song's both strong and soft, a firebomb sort of tune that's could borrow heavily from the video for "Toxic."

Jem - "Wish I". Something completely different, much closer to the summertime feelgood music of, say, Sugar Ray. (and by the way, Sugar Ray = good. all you haters can go home and be frowny.) "Wish I / Wish I / Wish I was going too," Jem sings, like surf on a beach. A lap steel guitar nods along beside her, helping to wash all that city ennui away. This is a song that should have colourful straws nearby, a breeze in one's hair, sweetened iced-tea.