An interesting one this; Cassidy Paris is an aspiring young rocker who finds herself surrounded and guided by a group of established old rockers (notably her dad, Steve Janevski (Wicked Smile), Danger Danger man Paul Laine and Frontiers‘ general factotum Alessandro Del Vecchio); Will it be the thrust of young blood or the calm of old hands that wins out on New Sensation?

As ever when two opposites are presented in this way, the answer lies somewhere roughly in the middle. Signing to a label like Frontiers obviously piles expectation on to Paris’ young head even before a note has been struck in anger, and anyone thinking we might have the new Chez Kane (and do we even need ‘new’ Chez when the ‘old’ one is still doing pretty well?) on our hands might be a bit disappointed with what’s presented here.

That’s possibly a bit unfair; But Paris just doesn’t possess the belting rock dynamics of her labelmate, and so guiding her towards similar material is probably a mistake. At her most rockular you get hints of prime Pat Benatar, but overall you’d have to say she delivers best on material that sets her squarely somewhere in that area (so beloved of record company execs ) between Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne and, if I might be so bold and with an eye to Cassidy’s development moving forward, Carrie Underwood.

These are big names, but there’s certainly enough about Cassidy Paris and her performance on New Sensation to suggest she can fulfil the promise. Songs like Danger and Searching For A Hero certainly point to an artist that possesses all the sass needed to go all the way, not to mention the talent. She’s not afraid of taking it to the streets and showing what she can do in the live arena too, which can only help toughen her voice up and bring a bit of what the young folk like to term ‘lived experience’ to the party *(and the songwriting) in the future which can only be a good thing. It’s going to be fun watching this young artist develop and, when she hits that sweet spot style wise, I’m pretty sure that sparks are going to fly…