Bittersweet Symphony - Jade Valerie

I can allay your fears straight away; this has absolutely nothing to do with Dickie Ashcroft.

Sometimes I kinda miss the early-mid 1990's. You could be fairly certain that some Scandinavian pop gem would blast the charts for a few weeks before the act in question disappeared quicker than they'd come to your attention.

Jade Valerie isn't Scandinavian (she was born in America) and has had precious little western success (as lead singer for Sweetbox, it was mainly Asia that succumbed) but there are certainly some songs on her debut full-length album that have the sort of appeal that I mention above.

The likes of No, You Don't and Undone are hardly going to be remembered as pop classics, but they are the kind of song that lodge in your brain sufficiently to the point where you're humming along hours after you last heard them.

As ever, when we get to the balladry things get very dull, very quickly, but as I've said before anyone who buys a pop album specifically for the ballads is asking for trouble.

Still if you like a bit of pop, don't mind the umpteen classical tunes thrown in, and want a bit of a good time, however fleeting, you'll not be too disappointed with this.