Releasing a covers album as the successor to Rumer's hit debut seems to have "stopgap" written all over it, but Boys Don't Cry is not entirely thus. Though made with the intention of keeping fans sated until the official followup to 2010's Seasons of My Soul appears next year, Boys Don't Cry has been constructed with all the delicate intensity of the first record. There are 12 obscure 1970s songs here, all originally recorded by men, and they re-emerge in deeply feminine wrapping – all velvety arrangements and languid alto croon. But the crux is her ability to deliver each song as if it's her own. At times, they are smothered in tastefulness, all emotion neutralised: Jimmy Webb's PF Sloan is countrified lounge music and Todd Rundgren's Be Nice to Me is drowsy to the point of semi-consciousness. But her cool, dignified treatment of Isaac Hayes' Soulsville takes the song somewhere different but equally heartfelt, and the throb in her voice as she sings "Are you laughing now? 'Cos I'm not" on Clifford T Ward's Home Thoughts from Abroad is worth the price alone.