Sleep It Off [Extra tracks]

Every track is unique, but The Lie Of Love and He Dines Out On Death have always been my personal favourites. The first is a devastatingly cynical portrayal of a successful urban couple, their weaknesses chillingly portrayed in poetic lines like "she does just takes lots of pills while he plays games that pay..." and "she gets the grey blues, he gets the mean reds." He Dines Out On Death tells of the social life of a young man after the death of his girlfriend and is a masterpiece of irony and cynicism.

Cristina's gripping version of Van Morrison's Blue Money also stands out and fits perfectly into the mood of the album, reflecting the theme of songs like Ticket To The Tropics and What's A Girl To Do with its reference to stained sheets. Of the new tracks, the unforgettable Things Fall Apart is still as poignant as when it was released 14 years ago. This heartbreaking story of a miserable Christmas is made all the more moving because of the deadpan vocal delivery and air of resignation.

The other new tracks are good too, both those from the original Sleep It Off sessions and the Compass Point tracks. Ze Records were famous for their mutant disco, but this is a pop-rock album through and through, with the possible exception of Things Fall Apart (although I cannot imagine anybody wanting to dance to such a sad song). Like Faithfull's aforementioned Broken English, this album has stood the test of time very well. I also highly recommend the Ze Records compilation Mutant Disco.

I wonder what the delectable Ms Monet-Paolozzi is doing now? It would have been impossible to equal this album, which had disappointing sales way back, so maybe she just left the music business. But Sleep It Off will forever remain a monument to her considerable talents, the ultimate manifesto of elegant decadence in rock music.

I must be in the minority here, as more educated music lovers than myself are currently raving over this album, but as I am a huge fan of "Doll in the Box", I found this one a little too arty-farty. Cristina is undoubtedly a talented and well-read wordsmith, but without the disco backing music of her first album, which set of her witty and sarcastic lyrics to great comic effect, here she takes on a more new-wave/punk-tinged musical approach, which still shows off her superbly acidic lyrics, but it's just too serious this time round.

It would be selfish of me to claim that "Sleep It Off" is a disappointment, especially as Cristina has said herself in interviews that she considers this her true first album, and dismisses "Doll in the Box" as just a bit of cheeky fun, saying it did not represent her real self. The songs on here suggest that Cristina is an angry young woman with a lot of axes to grind. She expresses her bile very succinctly, but the biggest drawback to this newfound sincerity is the revelation that Cristina can't really sing that well, a fact that was masked by the camp vocal delivery she applied on the previous release.

I'm not expecting any helpful vote ticks for this review, but I think music fans need to be aware that Cristina's two albums belong in entirely different genres. The first is disco froth with biting satire, whereas the second one is biting, but with no froth. Choose the style that you enjoy most and purchase accordingly.