Can it really be only seven years since the Spice Girls were being told there was no market for women in pop? Now, with Avril Lavigne having shifted more than 4 million copies of her debut album, and Dido's latest having sold 350,000 in its first week (the most since Oasis in 1997), the canny money these days is on the girls. Which is what makes the new albums by Butterfly Boucher and Amy Winehouse such a pleasant surprise. Boucher is managed by those responsible for Lavigne and Dido, Winehouse by the Spices' manager Simon Fuller. The sensitive nose braces itself for more than a whiff of hype. Yet their records are not just two of the finest of the year. They are also underivative, sounding nothing like each other nor, indeed, like anyone else around now.

First, Winehouse, whose soul-infused jazzy R&B is enjoying more radio airplay than Boucher's quirky, hookriddled guitar pop, and is therefore likely to garner greater commercial success. Her Frank could not be more aptly titled, with its dissection of romantic farragos, sexual betrayal and jealousy, peppered with caustic put-downs and killer one-liners. F*** Me Pumps, a withering attack on women of a certain age who hit the town in search of a rich husband but end up with a string of one-night stands, is beyond acerbic. Its cutting lyrics "Like the news, every day you get pressed" -are only marginally softened by a skinny tune that vaguely resembles Winter Wonderland.

Winehouse's chief asset, however, is her voice -a smoky, croaky instrument that is two parts Billie Holiday to one part Macy Gray: quite remarkable for a 20-year-old from North London.

Yet Butterfly Boucher (she really should be an EastEnders character with a name like that) is just as interesting and, to these ears at least, has a slightly better way with a tune. The 23-year-old Nashville-based Australian has led a peripatetic existence thus far, having spent her late teenage years doing street theatre around Europe with her six siblings, not to mention a period growing up in the Australian Outback after her musician father gave away all their worldly possessions.

Boucher's voice is clear and pure, with just a hint of an edge to lend the songs on Flutterby a little emotional heft. And what songs. Boucher admits to being influenced by late 1970s English rock acts such as Elvis Costello and the Pretenders, but she has added a 21st-century sheen over layer upon layer of melodies, hooks and harmonies.

Buy both these records and discover that the art of singer-songwriting is now in very safe hands indeed.

Frank is out on now Island Records; Flutterby on A&M

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