With the sales of electric guitars not what they once were, many music business commentators have spoken out on the need for a new generation of guitar heroes.

Since Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck don't mean much to most folks under 30 these days, they'd like to see some younger fret-wrestlers who will inspire America's youth to step away from their laptops and pick up a six-string.

As it happens, it might be a guitar heroine who does the trick, as evidenced by Tash Sultana on her first full-length album, 2018's Flow State.

The 23-year-old Australian first found an audience through YouTube videos in which she created over-the-top guitar soundscapes through the use of looping pedals, and while Flow State is clearly intended to also show off her gifts as a vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (she plays all the instruments on these recordings), her guitar work shines pretty bright on this album.

These songs have more to do with contemporary R&B than rock & roll, but Sultana has a rocker's love of the big guitar solo, and when she turns up the amps and lets rip on "Big Smoke," "Murder to the Mind," and "Pink Moon," she reveals a winning confidence and an ability to make her instrument snarl eloquently.

Prince appears to be more of a role model to Sultana than any British blues guys, given her taste for pop-leaning R&B tunes, emotive high-pitched vocals, bold and personal lyrics, and a well-programmed drum machine.

But Sultana clearly has a mind and a muse of her own, and like Prince she isn't afraid to follow it, with languid, low-key numbers like "Mellow Marmalade" and "Harvest Love" sitting side by side with dance grooves like "Cigarettes" and the attitudinal, hip-hop-influenced "Salvation." Tash Sultana is a modern rarity, a gifted guitarist with a healthy appreciation for flash but practically no rockist impulses, despite the presence of the nine-minute showcase "Blackbird." Sultana could stand to edit herself a bit better, but Flow State is unquestionably the work of a first-rate talent with potential, and if anyone is going to teach young women about the innate coolness of the guitar, she seems like just the person to do it.