Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Charlotte Church - Tissues and Issues

Look, lets get the whole "Matt fancied Charlotte Church" six years ago thing out of the way before we go much further. I was mis-quoted. Well ok, not so much mis-quoted, more mis-interpreted...Ok, so mis-interpreted might be a bit unfair...aw, to hell with it, let's just move on before I dig the hole for myself any deeper.

Only the deaf (or pop pariah's) could deny the charms of Crazy Chick, with it's Mowton-tinged groove, and there is little doubt it my mind that it is one of the pop singles of the year so far. It also proves that Miss Church is more than capable of carrying a decent pop tune.

The problem seems to be that the pop industry has spent so long with artists that can't carry a tune, that they don't seem to know what to do with a girl who really can sing. The album starts with a bang. Call My Name is the kind of sexy pop song that Girls Aloud would do really well, the afformentioned Crazy Chick is a mini-classic, and Moodswings is that pop rarity - a ballad you don't need to skip. The problem is that it's pretty much downhill from thereon in.

Playing the "which songs were written with Guy Chambers" game is as easy as it always is, Let's Be Alone sounds like a blatant attempt to sound like Girls Aloud (and fails to come anywhere close to being as good) and after a while, young Charlotte's seemingly constant whinging about how bad her life gets can get a bit tiresome. Pop music is about fun and at times Charlotte would do well to remember that edict.

This is not the terrible album it could have been, but nor is it the blinding success that it perhaps could have been given Church's obvious talent. Memo to her record company...give her better songs to sing next time.

Icon's View - 3 out of 5.

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