Reviewed by Phil Thomson

Welcome to Enid Blyton's "Famous Five decide to make a record". This is a self-confessed bedroom and living room job, and proud of it too. That's the good news. The rest has an air of unreality about it. The leading lady sounds like a precocious 14-year-old trying out on Saturday morning TV. What the support offers is nervy, forced, not quite getting on top of the top line. Almost every song is driven by low-energy rip-off - house, garage, shed at the bottom of the garden - and for padding, they have obviously left the radio running all night on short wave. It is finger-tapping exercise, laced with one or two predictably evangelistic ballads and embarrassing attempts at contemporary social comment. If you listen hard, the song-writing is structurally not bad at all, but the pick-n-mix production, the sheer naivity of it all is quite baffling. If you are going to do a Paula Abdul or one of the scratch masters, it has to survive the sophisticated ear of the average pop pundit. This just doesn't cut the mustard. A great deal of heart and absolutely no soul. Watch the cover price. I suspect a self-financed project with a distribution deal; Kingsway ought to know better.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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