albums and tracks

Editor's rating

If you happened to be a newcomer to the planet and/or the music press, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the female race was a new invention, dreamt up by a particularly entrepreneurial record company executive. There is, we are told, a 'new breed' of musician and they all have one thing in common: a distinct lack of the 'Y' chromosome. In actual fact, it's more likely that an ill-educated exec, somewhere, read the memo wrong and got confused between the words "gender" and "genre". The history books would suggest that, in actual fact, women were making music quite some time before Lily Allen first matched a ball gown with a pair of overpriced sneakers.

The upshot of all of this confusion is that singer-songwriters such as Lenka (see also Pixie Lott/Paloma Faith/various other interchangeable wide-eyed wailers) get thrust into the limelight, under the pretence that females are suddenly going to be allowed a credible voice within the music industry and the media circus that feeds on it. Meanwhile, the men in suits rub their hands together, but remain ready to pull the cord when they deem it appropriate.

Gender politics aside, this debut solo album from Australian-born Lenka is so overwhelmingly saccharine it should come with free vouchers for dental care. 'Trouble Is A Friend' is the one track that stands out here, initially for seeming to stick its head above the pop parapet a little, both rhythmically and musically. Unfortunately, it takes approximately 45 seconds before it ducks back down into the safety of what seems to be Lenka's trademark "oh-oh-oh" nonsense; it's more akin to a nursery rhyme than an original piece of song-writing. The girl's got an ear for hook but unfortunately, what is instantly hummable is also instantly forgettable.

Hayley Avron