Atomic Kitten, Ladies Night

I have the previous two albums, always good for the pre -night out cheese fest, but I was pretty disappointed with this offering from the kittens.

It starts off with a terrible cover, drones on for about 14 songs and then finishes with one of the most depressingly dull ballads ever.

"Ladies Night" is awful. I'm sorry but there's no other word for it. I quite liked "Eternal Flame", I forgave them "The Tide is High" and I even let them off "Kids in America", but now it's time to stop. Ok, so I didn't really like the original but there is nothing worse than a bad cover of an already bad song. Nuff said.

"Be With You" sits right next to the word boring in the dictionary. It does start off promisingly but as soon as the extremely repetitive chorus kicks in, all hope is lost. I can't even listen to it - it irritates me enough to get up off my backside and press skip.

It does pick up a bit with the next two songs. I genuinely like "If you come to me" and would go so far as to say it's one of my favourite AK songs. It's very catchy (which I suppose can be good and bad) and has a really pretty tune. "Don't Go Breaking my Heart" has a late 80s, early 90s feel to it, which is never bad! There were some classic pop toons made in that era. I was beginning to think that maybe this album wasn't so bad after all.

WRONG

"Believer" is the biggest pile of- put nicely - rubbish I have ever heard. "Your god is my god; your blood is my blood". Get a clue girls. Nobody wants to hear this meaningless dirge. Stop now.

Like "Be With You", "Everything goes Around" starts off well. The plinky plonky guitars are very catchy and manage to lull your bobbing head into a false sense of security. As soon as the singing starts any hope of a tune is ripped away from you leaving you with more monotonous babble.

It then gets worse with "Somebody Like You", which could have been written by a five-year-old. And I quote: "Somebody like you, somebody like me, should never hold back cos we've got the key." Very insightful. It's an uneventful trip down wannabe disco classic lane, which will again irritate you into reaching for that skip button.

"Nothing in the world" is your classic boring pop ballad. It's no worse than songs like "Never Had a Dream Come True", but not one to write home about.

It gets slightly better with the next two songs. "I Won't Be There" was penned by Natasha with a little help from a certain Mr Barlow who in his time has provided us with many great pop songs. And no I'm not being sarcastic. I was the world's biggest Take That fan. I had one of those mad fan rooms, which was completely covered in posters. I had the clock, the curtains, the bedcovers, about 20 t-shirts... ahem, anyway, where was I? Yeah, so this is actually one of the best songs on the album. Natasha really gives it some welly and finally takes the time to remind you that she can actually sing.

"Always be My Baby" is somewhat ruined by Liz squawking away at notes that really should have been left for Natasha. I really like the tune but again the could-have-been-written-by-a-toddler lyrics let it down.

The suicide inducing "Never Get Over You" was a big mistake and should have been left off. The album is 15 songs long so it's not as if it would have been short. In fact I'd say the same thing about the last five songs. "Someone Like Me" is along the same vein as "Never Get Over You" - dull, uninspiring and pointless. "Loving You" sounds identical to "Somebody Like You", and "Don't You Know" totally lost it's tune somewhere along the production line.

The only one I'd save is "Don't Let Me Down" which is wasted so near to the end of the album as anyone with any sense or hearing will have turned it off by then.

In short the album is far from great. There are a few good pop songs in there but they are vastly outnumbered by the monotonous, tuneless drivel. After this I'm actually sad to say it might be a good thing that they've split up - before they get any worse.