Shoot From The Hip [Extra tracks]

For all their fancy retro clothes, these are mainly love songs--most of them almost decent and all of them referring to a ubiquitous second person ("Nowhere Without You", "I Won't Change You", "The Walls Keep Saying Your Name"). No rocket science here then. "I Am Not Good at Not Getting What I Want" is strong, largely due to its pleasantly surprising surf guitar (probably not heard on a mainstream album since the Pulp Fiction soundtrack), combining strings and synths in equal parts. Weird mixture? That's Shoot from the Hip. --Cortman Virtue

Since then Sophie released a debut album, Read My Lips,packed full of hits. "Murder On The Dancefloor" and "Get Over You" will be stuck in brains all over the world forever.

But how has she fared in her follow-up, Shoot From The Hip? Opening track "Making Music" maybe a disco charger but, as the words inform us, this is "Making music by numbers".

Things improve with the hit single "Mixed Up World". It's a combination of the best 80s PWL creations, with a superb little humming riff. And Sophie's pop-philosophy is inspiring - "Remember you're a real tough girl" - that's what we need to know. Just sway along to the chorus with your arms in the air.

"Hello, Hello" although slightly Andrew Lloyd Webber, is beautiful. The sustained arrangement and sad lyrics mean that for once Sophie's voice is allowed to become less "Ace Of Bass", and more expressive. It makes you wonder what she could do if she tried.

But too many of the tracks here are predictable. "Party In My Head", with its cringe worthy rhyming does not inspire me to get a ticket to this exclusive venue. While "Won't Change You" is reminiscent to Pink's "Don't Let Me Get Me" but isn't as good. The two duets on this album, both with Andy Boyd, are peculiar in they are so 80s retro, but they are also rather naff. He doesn't sound like the hunk of love that you'd like to imagine Sophie might have chosen for herself.

There's a hidden track, "Let's Get Physical", which is updated to include a date in an internet café in the lyrics. WHY is this hidden? The song encapsulates Sophie; knowingly dead-pan with a little wink tipped at the listener, it's a perfect piece of ironic, kitsch chic.

Sophie needs to think long and hard about where she's going next. The songs from Shoot From The Hip, with their chewing gum melodies, don't cause too much offence. But the mileage she's got from being cool, glamorous and one dimensional is running out. I hope she's got more than this one trick pony up her sequinned sleeve. --Lucy Davies

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