Even if you don't know the name KT Tunstall, you probably have heard at least one of her songs.

Former “American Idol” runner-up Katharine McPhee once performed a fairly mediocre cover of Tunstall's hit single “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.”

Tunstall's heart-wrenching, acoustic guitar-laden tunes also have been featured on shows such as “Grey's Anatomy” and “Brothers & Sisters,” not to mention the single “Suddenly I See,” which played over the opening credits of the hit film “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Those multiple pop-culture plugs, in addition to a handful of smart songs that Tunstall — unlike other pop princesses these days — actually wrote herself, propelled her 2004 debut, Eye to the Telescope, to platinum status in the U.S.

And now, with the release of her sophomore studio effort — Drastic Fantastic — Tunstall has done something fellow female singer-songwriter Liz Phair tried — and failed — to do with her 2003 self-titled release.

Whereas Phair, the former Lilith Fair poster girl, crafted formulaic, radio-friendly pop jams,  Tunstall's Drastic Fantastic is a radio-friendly pop album that actually works. It does so because Tunstall is able to elicit emotion from her music while also keeping all but one of Drastic Fantastic's 11 tunes under a poppy four minutes in duration. Whether on hooky, rhythmic tracks like “Little Favours” and “If Only” or on slower, more haunting tracks like “Beauty of Uncertainty” and the album-closing “Paper Aeroplane,” Tunstall has achieved a feat more difficult than some skeptics might imagine.

With Drastic Fantastic, she has constructed a pop album that's difficult to pick apart.

CLINT HALE | 210SA