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There are moments, when one listens to the eponymous debut album from Benjamin Booker, a 25-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist from Virginia who is making something of a name for himself in the United States currently, which could make one thing that one might be listening to the birth of a mighty talent.

The album opens with the rather excellent Violent Shiver, Booker’s debut single, which kicks off with a guitar-picking workout lifted directly from the Black Crowes before maturing into a straight-ahead classic-rock workout with just enough creativity and imagination in the composition to make it a memorable number in its own right. It’s followed by Always Waiting, which sounds for all the world like the bastard glam-rock child of Buddy Holly and Jimi Hendrix listening to a little too many George Formby records. It jangles around itself, not quite knowing where to go and threatening to turn into a La’s B-side, but manages to be an enjoyable track. Chippewa, another standout, is a shuffling boogie of a tune with an insistent drumline and a subtle but rather effective Hammond organ skirl driving it along.

And then Booker does something a little less well-advised. Slow Coming is, as the name suggests, the first slow number on the album, and, sadly, the first of several, and while I can easily imagine seas and oceans of lighters waving back and forth when he plays the song live, it falls a little flat coming out of my stereo. Again, Booker’s been playing his Black Crowes albums again, but this song points up one of the big problems with Benjamin Booker. He’s a very strong songwriter, and a skilled guitar player. He’s also — and here’s a crucial caveat — sometimes an excellent singer. His voice has strength and power, raw force and energy, and when he puts his head back and opens up his lungs, the raw and the rough and the unfiltered shine through. Even in mid-paced grooves like Happy Homes, he puts enough weight behind his voice to make it sound like a well-tuned instrument. But on the unpleasantly-named Spoon Out My Eyeballs, Booker’s attempts to croon only work when he starts to open up his pipes — the man can sing loud, but not soft. Loud, he’s good. Soft, he simply sounds like he’s getting over a bad cold and could really do with a good, hard cough. And that’s a shame, because songs like I Thought I Heard You Screaming are fine pieces of southern-inflected blues rock, let down by a singer who should have me wanting to sing along, but instead leaves me with an almost unbearable urge to clear my throat.

Production, by Andrija Tokic, who has previously worked with the Alabama Shakes, is a little messy — on tracks like Old Hearts, instruments get lost in each other, while Always Waiting sees unprocessed guitars shining through the mix but tending toward a blur as soon as they see a little overdrive, and too often the sound can only be described as muddy. The overall feel of the album, as a result, ends up a little, well, baggy. While bands have made a career out of loose-but-tight — you know, you just know, that Benjamin Booker, when he’s not listening to the Black Crowes, has the Faces on heavy rotation on his record player — there are moments on this album that simply feel a little loose, without quite enough tight to really convince the listener that the loose is a choice. Songs like Happy Homes make it work; on tracks like Have You Seen My Son, with its frantic and unfocused false ending, the feeling is less “this is a band who know what they’re doing” and more “Oh, man, that was a cool jam — d’ya think we can make an actual song out of it?” And, sadly, the answer’s no. When he’s good — and on, say, Violent Shiver, he’s very good — Benjamin Booker is a name to watch. Stephen King knew that he needed a good editor to keep him on track; Booker has the potential to be a powerful musical force, but he needs a producer who can tap into the energy he clearly has and who understands that the southern roots Booker clearly embraces need something more than just dialling the “swampy” button all the way to eleven.

Overall, this is a very promising debut album from a man who knows where he fits into the genres he so obviously enjoys. This is definitely a name to watch.

Click here to listen to Violent Shiver from Benjamin Booker: