The PR for this says Sand loves “sweet soul music”, and the emphasis is on the sweet for this collection of covers and originals.

She’s got a honeyed voice and the band is tight but — in the best possible sense — it most reminds us of a live band you’d get in a classy venue, playing slick soul for the masses. The Blues Brothers as teetotal vegans.

Clearly she needs to make money from this CD but it’s the sound of someone who loves their music above other considerations. This may well be true: in the Press notes she talks of sneaking into a jazz club under-age and watching her heroes of the Stockholm Underground play — Henrik Janson, Lars DK Danielsson, Per Lindvall and Jesper Nordenström, part of trombone player Nils Landgren’s Funk Unit — and now here she is, recording with them.

The album takes in a wide spectrum of what could be called soul, from the feisty crowd pleaser Where The Hell Are You, one of her own songs, to a gorgeous, bluesy I Believe To My Soul — it’s a Ray Charles song and her love of his sound his clear. Elsewhere, there’s a set that varies from Born On The Bayou (John Fogerty) to BB King-style blues in It’s Your Voodoo Working and the classic Take Me To The River.

It’s beautifully played and sung; our only caution would be that it might be a little too smooth for people who like their music rough round the edges. Her own songs stand up pretty well, too, though they’re competing against classics.

Out on ACT, ACT 9736-2.

The cover photo is by Josefine Bäckström.