The accompanying PR material states that Melua rates this as her best album. I wish she was right. Unfortunately, the reverse is true. It is the most pedestrian, monotone, mono-paced, unadventurous album I’ve heard in some time. They say that the third album is the really critical one, and if that’s true then this album signifies that a dramatic change is required, which may be difficult under Mike Batt’s stewardship. There is just one song written solely by Melua, a couple of joint ventures with other writers, a couple with Batt and the rest by Batt. I really thought that Melua had more potential as a singer/songwriter, but now I’m not so sure. And in so saying, I’m comparing this with some excellent, recent female singer/songwriter material including, Stephanie Dosen, Bats For Lashes (Natasha Khan), Catherine Feeny, Kate Nash, Keren Ann, Regina Spektor, Amy Winehouse and Lisa Lindley-Jones.

‘Mary Pickford’ has a pleasant flowing ambience with gently wafting acoustic guitar, interesting choruses and strong melody. Lyrically, it’s barren in terms of emotion or anything of real meaning. What then is the point? ‘It’s All In My Head’ is banal in the extreme, ‘If The Lights Go Out’ is unbelievably bad with juvenile lyrics and a musical arrangement in sharp ambient contrast to the sentiments. ‘What I Miss About You’ is a pedestrian love song that draws out the best vocal performance on the album - the only aspect of the song worthy of note. I find it difficult to believe that an artist, who reputedly sells millions of records, can produce something as mediocre and unadventurous as this. Melua is locked into a genre that has developed greatly, and on the evidence of this album, has passed her by. Even her very own song ‘Spellbound’ is the worst thing she’s ever written… Perhaps she has reached her potential or perhaps Batt’s commercial interests and influence now dominates everything she does. Whatever, Melua needs to go back to the drawing board and listen to what other singer/songwriters are achieving (regardless of sales or airplay). Perhaps she should try a more creative side-project called ‘Battless Katie… Put simply, this album lacks artistic ambition, and appears designed excusively to shift units (rather than move and inpire) to fans who are alrady giving it a 5/5 rating on Amazon without even hearing it.

1/5