Australian teen sensation Orianthi started off as Avril Lavigne styled pop-metal singer/songwriter and quickly moved on to a more mature blues-based angst, but considering her career trajectory, she’s probably not where she should have been or wanted to be.

He debut indie EP was way back in 1999 and her major label debut was in 2009. 11 years on from that we’ve had just one other album (in 2012) and the collaboration with then partner Richie Sambora which yielded just one album which failed to get the attention it deserved.

So now she’s back and signed to Frontiers, not for a return to the AOR leanings of her youth, but rather a mature, experimental modern rock opus filled with vocal effects, a heavy emphasis on programming and a sound not often embraced by the purist Frontiers audience.

The aggressive modern rocker Rescue Me is decent; the acoustic ballad Crawling Out Of The Dark is an emotional highlight and the new single Impulsive is a catchier affair – but the video clip does it no favors.

Blow does just that; Sinner’s Hymn is a distorted modern mess and overall the album is just a little too tuned down and left of centre, not to mention seldomly moving outside a mid-tempo pace.

Not sure who this is going to appeal to besides established die-hard Orianthi fans, but at 917,000 FB followers, she'll likely sell to those, more than many other artists on the label. It’s not of the style that will see any crossover or mainstream success, but this review should generate enough hate mail for the time being.

Ousey/Mann is none other than the great vocalist Chris Ousey (Heartland, Virginia Wolf, The Distance) paired with English multi-instrumentalist/guitarist Steve Mann (Liar, Eloy, MSG, The Sweet).

Together the pair have recorded a very fine album together. Suggested as a potential pairing together by the Right Reverend Khalil Turk, chemistry quickly evolved into a set of songs that is now released as the album ‘Is Anybody Listening’.

Fans of Chris Ousey will immediately be drawn the voice and the style of melodic hard rock on offer here – recent Heartland and solo offering compare favourably and fans of classic British hard rock get their fill with some in your face crunch from Steve Mann.

It’s not an unfamiliar sound – especially for Ousey fans – but what is impressive is the energy, the memorable songs on offer and the excellent production and mix.

Plenty of keyboards on offer for those that like some contrast to the riffs, but this is very much a guitar/vocal driven record.

There is an hour of music here, which might be one or two tracks too long, but I’m hesitant to call out any tracks that could have been omitted.

More great stuff for fans of the newly formed duo – and a record whose strength immediately demands a sequel.