INNER SMILE

Texas

So this is what the new millennium's all about, is it? I do hope not. Texas have been responsible for some right horrors in their time, a fact I didn't fully appreciate until I sat through their Greatest Hits not long ago. Blandness and safety are the watchwords when producing a Texas single, the collaboration with the Wu-Tang Clan being as much of an exception as it remains inexplicable. Sharleen Spiteri and Co. are not in the business of pushing back the boundaries of pop and they know it, instead they seem to be moving more and more towards the genre labelled Ballads So Dull They Can Be Played In Carpet Shops, such is the apparent lack of interest on the part of the band. This is ever so slightly different to the usual fare, however. It's jaunty, almost jolly and involves the backing singers singing the word Yeah a lot. Actually, make that a hell of a lot. It still lacks any sign of anything interesting happening, but it's a start.

WHERE I'M HEADED

Lene Marlin

If anybody can out-Texas Texas, this girl can. Light, frothy, guitar-driven radio-friendly pop that defies all attempts to be memorable, the fact that it's come from the same blueprint as Sitting Down Here (her one notable hit to date) is possibly the one thing that's going to help it up the charts. If ever a CD has been begging to check out the business end of a blowtorch, this is the one.

AMERICAN DREAM (known as American Booty at the time of review)

Jakatta

I can't quite believe it myself. With a title like that, I was dreading some really, REALLY dreadful rap / R&B effort loaded with more dodgy innuendos than a TV show about renovating bedrooms hosted by Leslie Phillips and Terry-Thomas (obviously no longer possible, but you get the idea). How wrong can you be? Well, pretty much completely as it turns out. There's no rap, unless you count some sultry sounding woman saying stuff like "Overdrive" a fair bit. There's not even a sniff of R&B, just a very rare creature indeed, a house tune you can sit back and relax to. Yes, the drum machine's there, but it's a warm, mellow and inviting tune anyway so it doesn't matter. As for innuendos, who cares? This is great stuff and it ought to go Top 5. Probably won't, though - it's a proper song.