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New Zealand native Gin Wigmore's debut EP delivers the promise of a unique, new (if slightly divisive) voice in the crowded alternative singer/songwriter field. Wigmore hopped aboard the major-label train (Universal Australia) after nabbing the top prize in 2004's International Songwriting Contest in New York with "Hallelujah," a deeply personal lament for the then 16-year-old's deceased father. That song and four others make up the guts of Extended Play, a collection of bluesy, slightly off-kilter folk-pop that channels Feist and Fiona Apple with a twist. That twist would be Wigmore's impossible to ignore vocal style, a bourbon and unfiltered cigarette siren that sounds like the middle of a Joanna Newsom and Axl Rose teeter-totter. The production is top-notch, boasting soulful Tom Waits-inspired horn sections, thoughtful lyrics and sass to spare, but Wigmore's heavily inflected vocal acrobatics keep this one firmly in the love it or hate it column. James Christopher Monger.

Estimated despatch 5-10 days after ordering.