"Sherrie Austin's" auspicious, if EXTREMELY uneven debut album, is a pleasant enough collection of 12 tunes, 11 of which she impressively CO-wrote. But after the opening cut of her current rocketing hit "Never Been Kissed," she jumps all over the map stylistically, often in the same song (!!) All of this gear-shifting derails her obviously massive talent, as both a vocalist and writer.

Her opening cut has enough Shania-pop-ness, with enough country mandolin and steel guitar touches, that it is the perfect example of a talented lady following in the country-pop tracks Shania herself has mapped. But except for "Heart Hold On," she puts this attempt to mix everything together on such overdrive that many of these tunes just sound flat out schizophrenic. Both "All The Love A heart Can Hold" and "Love In The Real World" have wacko intros that have NOTHING in common with the rest of the tune. Moreover, these songs' Choruses, Verses and obvious influences careen willy-nilly from The Judds, to Sheryl Crow, to Shania again, to Suzanne Vega, with nary a hint of preparation. It's as if some producer is breathing down her neck telling her that ALL your cards have to be played in EVERY song on your debut album.(Speaking of cards, I haven't seen this many incantations of the word "HEART" since I last played bridge.) The songs that are consistent and stunning here prove that with a lady of Ms. Austin's wonderful talent, this is overkill in the extreme.

Before we get to the awesome tunes though, some more problems. "Sarah" comes from the same family as Carly Simon's "Jesse" in a viewpoint of some poor girl's messed up life. Its rather cliched lyrics keep it from having much of an effect. "All That Matters" is virtually the SAME song as Suzy Bogguss' "Outbound Plane." And to go Schizo again there is "Good Love Comin' On," with its great country-pop build up that collapses into a well-sung, but out-of-left-field Jazzy-Slinky chorus. There is the downright awful "Dreaming Out Loud," which has a haunting and lovely Suzanne Vega-esque beginning that suddenly morphs into a part country, part gospel, part pop dreck chorus with the only HORRID lyrics on the album, "Clouds rolling by like a marshmallow parade" (ick). The title cut is sadly a cliche-ridden miss.

However, the schizo songs for the most part aren't BAD or unlistenable. They are just, well, ODD. Where in songs like the first single, the rousing "Heart to Heart," the style juxtapositions WORK, and in the still schizo (haunting beginning, almost new age chorus) but stunning last song, the only song not CO-Penned by Ms. Austin, "Wish," there are absolutely award-worthy lyrics that make it work as one of the strongest songs on the album. Her take on this tune, which talks of selfish prayers, "Did I wish for an end to Poverty?/ No all I wished was you would always love me. . ." strikes a million nerves in those of us who pay sometimes more attention to our hearts than to the big picture.

However, these good songs almost irk a reviewer more, because it makes the weaker and overkilled schizo material stand out even more. Still, if there is justice, one song on the album that simply MUST be the next single causes the album to be jumped up a whole star. "That's No Way To Break A Heart" is stunningly sung, gorgeously written and very nearly tear-jerking. If next time Ms. Austin will stick to these kind of consistent, great songs, she could very well have a five-star CD. In the meantime, I pray the wonderfully talented Ms. Austin will not leap around the stylistic path like a roadrunner on speed with her next release. I don't think I will have the energy to listen to another one like "Love In The Real World" again.