I started off this month with Eject Pilot Eject, a three piece band from South Wales, and now here comes Ms Maddie Jones - also from South Wales. She heard about me, apparently through Steff Adams whose excellent and highly recommended Blue Pathways CD (April 2010) lit up the early part of the year. Steff, as you may have gathered, is also a member of the South Wales musical mafia (or is that taffia?). Actually, as I said in EPE's review, all of these people are treading in very familiar footsteps because this area of Wales (Cardiff and its immediate vicinity) throwing up stars as diverse as Dame Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, Shakin' Stevens and - from a modern perspective - Manic Street Preachers, Super Furry Animals, and Bullet for My Valentine. So, knowing all this, I know that no musician from this part of the world can be taken lightly, an area with a strong musical history is a hard nut to crack.

Dirty Little Secret is a track from Maddie's 6 track EP Let It Out recorded with The Jones O'Connor Group and that's about it as far as general information goes, Maddie won ViperMusic's 'Songwriter' Competition and Dirty Little Secret will go some way to show why she did. Not at all what I was expecting, but I'm not sure now what I was expecting from Maddie. What I got was a VERY polished performance, a nice spine tingling vocal style and, the highlight for me, an incredible arrangement of an excellent song. All of which, I might add, will make you work for your money to take it all in and that's good because this is most definitely a track you will grow into.

Most of the credit for that has to go to Maddie's songwriting talent, although it has to be said that the band are no slouches either. The backing track they supply is tasteful without being ornate, and perfectly fits the style and delivery of the song. It is the content and texture of the song that got to me though, and that doesn't happen often enough. The main reason you will have to give this track some time is because it's an intelligent song, full of nuance and detail that only surfaces over time (like the little echo overhang on the vocals for example, a lovely touch), as well as being musically adventurous in a way I found very refreshing. Definitely worth checking out.

Highly Recommended intelligent rock.