A while back, fellow staffer David Gillespie raved on about Melbourne lass Missy Higgins and her self titled debut E.P. In particular he fell hard for her track 'All For Believing' (a song that, as a teenager, won her Triple J's Unearthed competition). It was a song, he claimed, was so fantastic that if she never wrote one like it again then she should at least be recognised for her small contribution to the Australian songbook.

'Tis too true Mr Gillespie. It ain't easy to come up with a cracker song. In fact it would've been a waste if straight after releasing that song, the record company heads had persuaded her to go to America and start collaborating with Desmond Child and Dianne Warren.

I could see it now: "Now Missy, your voice is nice and all, but it's a littleyou knowAussie. How about dropping that and sounding more like Sheryl Crow."

Thank Christ that didn't happen.

Missy's full-length debut, The Sound Of White, is an album done at her own pace. Fulfilling a promise to her friend to travel around Europe after High School (one of the best decisions she could have ever made), the songs that grace the record are a reflection of a woman who has experienced a bit of what life has to offer. As Wayne Campbell would say, "A year has passed. I'm a little older, a little wiser".

A re-recorded version of 'All For Believing' kicks things off and the way it has been produced, it now sounds like more of a prelude to the rest of the album rather than the song it was once known as. You can take that either way I guess, it's neither good or bad, it's just different.

Though I will state that the new version of 'The Special Two' (also from her debut E.P.) with the inclusion of Dean Butterworth's drumming left me a little hollow. Gone is the immediacy and sparsity of the original, especially the sweet adolescent hope in Missy's voice at the end of the second verse when she claims that they will be together once more. But then we will always have Paris I guess.

Thankfully the earnest feel is kept for 'Don't Ever', a gorgeous track about the dreams of starting anew. The whimsical line of, "We'll make friends with the milkman and the butcher Mr. Timms will give us discounts when he can," kills me every time.

Miss Higgins is quite confessional throughout the whole album, and possibly no more so than on 'Ten Days'. Complimented by a nice piece of cello, 'Ten Days' is about the aftermath of a relationship breakdown where one party still has a candle lit. Haven't we all been there before?

For the most part, The Sound Of White, sits in cruise control, which is to say there are only brief forays in to up-beat territory. Recent number one single 'Scar' is one such track, with a great moral about not letting anyone control your life. The jazzy tones of 'This Is How It Goes' also manages to get the toes a tappin'.

But it would be wrong to suggest that the remainder of the album is bland in comparison. Producer John Porter (fresh from Ryan Adam's Love Is Hell album) allows the subtlety of the songs to shine through, ultimately giving the album some nice shade, whether it is the mournful, yet fictional, suicide tale of 'The River' or the grand and sweeping imagery expressed in the title track.

Higgins is still young, quite young in fact. In her corner though is an understanding and nurturing record label in Eleven (Silverchair, Paul Mac), a burgeoning North American deal with Warner Brothers and a wealth of life experience. I bet Hilary Duff hasn't slummed it on a floor in a London apartment! Most of all she has a strong debut album that she can proudly call her own.