In actuality, the Isle of Wight artist is at her best when her songwriting is more raw. Easily the best song on the album is opener I Suck At Grieving, a delicately upbeat yet powerful portrait of the way grief seeps into the cracks of everyday life – stopping a Gilmore Girls re-run before a major death, not knowing what to do with the money inherited from her late father, for example. The minimalistic closing track Not The Girl You Hoped is stunningly vulnerable, in which she confesses: 'I wear baggy clothes but they don’t hide my shitty jokes.'
Behind the cherry-scented sheen of most of the album is a big, open heart and when it comes to the fore, she’s stronger than ever. If she taps into that, she’ll have something brilliant.
Verdict: 3/5
For fans of: Avril Lavigne, Hannah Grae, beabadoobee
Girlfriend Material is released on March 22 via Virgin