Thursday's Child

The connection between pop stars and new towns in the Eighties - someone should have done a thesis on it. We had Depeche Mode in Basildon, The Cure in creepy Crawley and, least likely of the lot, the exotically named Tanita Tikaram from the decidedly non-exotic Basingstoke. It's hard to imagine a less likely birthplace for Ancient Heart, an LP that went double platinum in Britain, established Tanita as an all-time legend in Norway and won her awards all over the shop. The poor lass has hardly set foot in Basingstoke since and has had to write all the new songs on the road for her "difficult" second album.

"You're a kind of dream, but somewhere in the scheme of things I'll find who's Thursday's child."

While Tanita is a huge fan of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell, her Iyrics barely compare. On The Sweet Keeper (dodgy title, sounds like Tolkien, something to do with wargaming, or - gawdelupus - a Jethro Tull album) they have progressed to the point where they sound simple but are often impenetrable. There's nothing as straightforward as Good Tradition here. At their best they have an impressionistic feel: take "Kisses are not something we can talk about/They happen and you laugh about it/Laugh out loud." They sound portentous, but are ultimate shadows to the words of Tanita's heroes and heroines.

The arrangements are another matter. While the same group of musicians who played on Ancient Heart are assembled here, the use of strings and brass - barely evident on the debut - is an inspired move. Little Sister Leaving Town, a highlight when played with a lane acoustic guitar at gigs, is lovingly swathed in strings reminiscent of Robert Kirby's work on the Nick Drake albums (yes, that good). It AII Came Back Today is equally fine with a simple acoustic/strings set-up. At other times, though, the "tasteful" band arrangements intrude- while jauntier pop pieces like Thursday's Child can benefit from a fuller backing, it comes as a blessed relief when the drums are dropped, albeit for one song. Get real, Tan, those boys are just clogging up your music!

No matter. It's her voice which remains the centerpiece of The Sweet Keeper. Tan sounds even older than she did on Ancient Heart, 20 going on 46, but her voice now wavers and changes from song to song. On the single, We Almost Got It Together, while it's still identifiably Tanita, it sounds as if she had a couple of gins before the tapes started rolling. On I Owe All To You, a tribute to her mother she evidently had a couple of gins and then ran all the way to the studio. Even more bizarre is the Jamaica-cum-Geordie accent she adopts for Love Story: if she's been doing breathing exercises or taking singing lessons. I advise her to stop at once. The Sweet Keeper sees Tanita dabbling with the folk-pop of her debut, embellishing and improving it in some areas (the gorgeous muted brass of Sunset's Arrived would make a beautiful single) fiddling and spoiling on Consider The Rain, heavily derivative of Van Morrison with some irksome quitar work. Consolidation, basically. What more did you expect? They'll love it in Basingstoke and Norway - the next LP will be the real test.