Lessons to Be Learned - Gabriella Cilmi

I'm a sucker for a good pop song. It's my Achilles heel. One minute I'm a cool (don't argue) and collected individual and then, after a few bars of a catchy pop song, I turn into a blithering idiot. Common sense jettisoned. My CD collection is littered with the casualties of my affliction; Martika, Tiffany, All Saints, Metallica.

The only thing that has changed is that I now have access to the internet. Whereas there was an albeit slim chance that I would come to my senses before the opportunity to buy a record presented itself, I can now simply log on and buy or download the song, album or entire recording career. Thankfully the latter is likely to be relatively short as the performer has usually only just been allowed into pubs.

But it's not hard to see what tempted me to buy this album; simply type 'Sweet About Me Jools Holland' into your favourite web browser and watch the clip. It's a great song and in its acoustic form very effective. That's not to say that the rest of the album is bad..... just a bit ordinary. Well OK, it's dull. And after a while her voice, which sounded so distinctive on Jools Holland, becomes grating. Too much. Loud. What was I thinking? Ah well. Another casualty to add to the growing list.......