Noise From The Basement, Skye Sweetnam's debut album, was one of those albums that was excellent, in a disposable way, without ever getting it's fair due. Albums that were a lot, lot worse ended up selling millions more.
Sound Soldier probably won't reverse her commercial fortunes, but it is a bloody good pop album which shows more invention in the space of one album than the majority of her peers do in entire careers. Yes, the hands of The Matrix and Tim Armstrong are all over the project but Sweetnam has an infectious character than inhabits all her songs and makes you believe she actually had some input into them, rather than them just rolling off the latest conveyor belt.
Whether it's the ska sounds of (Lets Get Movin') Into Action (which, incidentally reminds me of Ant & Dec's finest moment You Betta Watch Out - a good thing I tell ya) or the pop/rock/rap melange of Music Is My Boyfriend, Sweetnam is never anything less than interesting.
They are not the only highlights either; Cartoon is infectiously catchy and has a chorus that will simply lodge itself in your brain (resistance is futile) whilst even her attempt at a ballad in Scary Love isn't that bad.
Yes towards the end the quality certainly drops, but overall this is throwaway pop at it's finest. No matter whether anybody buys it or not.
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