In A Perfect World - Keri Hilson

Until the release of this album, Keri Hilson had been known more for her collaborations (such as her turn on Timbaland's The Way You Are) or her songwriting duties on other people's songs (such as Britney's Gimme More or Mary J.Blige's Take Me as I Am) than she was for any of her attempts at solo success, most of which charted surprisingly low.

Yet with such a wide-range of pre-release achievements with other artists, there was always going to be somewhat of a buzz around this debut album. Even the fact that Return The Favour failed to trouble the American charts (it limped to number 19 in the UK) wasn't too distressing; it was a top quality tune after all.

And there's more like that, at least when all concerned are keeping things up-tempo. Return The Favour is joined by the likes of Turnin’ Me On, which features Lil Wayne, and Get Your Money Up, which are perfectly respectable R'n'B pop tunes that should be huge.

Of course there is the, seemingly ubiquitous, reliance on overwrought (and dull) ballads that seem to ruin most R'n'B albums by female vocalists these days. In, ahem, a perfect world there would have been more of the good up-tempo stuff, less of the filler slush. And sadly, there's just far too much of the slowed-down dross for me to recommend anything other than careful cherry-picking of the best tunes rather than the album as a whole.