Jigsaw - Lady Sovereign

It seems a long time since the days that Lady Sov was signed by Jay Z to his American label and when the world did indeed seem like her oyster. The reasons behind Sov moving from the Def Jam label onto her own are somewhat vague, although there is the suggestion that it's a chance for her to return to what she knows best. Which makes the "electropop" sound of Jigsaw all the more of a surprise.

The Cure-sampling opening single So Human was a surprise, and at first didn't seem like a particularly good one, but after a number of plays revealed itself to be a decent tune. Sadly it's one of the few out and out memorable tunes on a patchy second album.

When it's good, like on the lilting Guitar (which admittedly tries it's best to through away any goodwill over the tune by being about how Lady Sov can't play the guitar - which strikes me as slightly pointless) or the magnificent I Got The Goods, it almost matches up to her best, but far too often the tunes simply don't stack up.

Which is a shame because the album does feature the wit that marked out Sovereign as someone to listen to. But when the tunes don't thrill you, the lyrics aren't quite enough to save the day.