Considering Charlotte Martin has garnered more headlines for her looks (she’s a former Miss Teen Illinois, after all) than her music, it’s easy to underestimate her legitimate gifts as a classically trained opera singer and pianist. Unfortunately, she still has a long way to go before she attains similar legitimacy as a songwriter. At 27 years of age, Martin hasn’t completely left behind the drama of late adolescence, expressing sentiment often far too obvious and overwrought to be supported by the album’s predictable rising and falling din of piano and strings. There are moments where Tori Amos and Kate Bush references seem appropriate, but those artist’s songs were penned with a far more pronounced sense of presence, something Martin struggles to find here. A versatile, if somewhat indistinctive, vocalist, she lacks the boldness that could easily redeem the non-descript quality of her melodies and arrangements. In fact, when she does step out, with the layered vocals and thudding drums of “Madman” or the soft electric piano and minor chord changes of “Up All Night,” she comes close to shaking off the formula that hampers the rest of the album. Possessing the requisite tools for crafting truly great songs, she could very well grow into her potential, leaving On Your Shore as the awkward high school yearbook photo of her career.