I make no bones about saying this, and it’s going to be unpopular with some readers I’m sure, but I really disliked the album (and it seems that most of the British newspaper reviews are with me on this).

Having  loved ‘Fight For This Love’ and absolutely played it to death, the rest of the album came as a huge disappointment if I am honest. I think that given where she is at the moment, and all the success she’s currently enjoying, I expected better than this album has ultimately delivered.

The main bugbear for me is that there are far too many collaborations with will.i.am. He’s the only artist that she’s collaborated with, and it seems that he is credited as being an artist on 37% of the album! (plus he worked a lot behind the scenes on some of her other tracks). Crikey!

Sorry, but in this case, the pupil really has surpassed the mentor!

As always, I had a listen to the album whilst at work, so I made a few thought notes against each track, which I have shared below.

NB – these are in order of how the ‘random’ function on Spotify played them, so are not in track listing order.

3 Words – Dull, boring… tries to be pulsatingly tense and threatening, but ultimately fails and becomes repetitive.

Rain On Me – A good track, not a big fan of all the vocal overlays or the continuation of the stripped back instrument sound at the swell of the chorus, but a potential single?

Heartbreaker – I already know from the singles chart that I dislike this track… sorry! On second listen, I still dislike!

Parachute – vocal sounds a little flat and lacking in attitude… nice melody to the song, but let down by the vocal.

Stand Up – how I was hoping that the album would sound! A good song for the clubs, had me dancing along to it in my chair!

Fight For This Love – amazing, amazing, amazing – I continue to love this song! I can pretty much forgive the rest of the album for the fact that this song is included on it. Probably second best single of 2009 after Alexandra’s ‘Bad Boys’!

Happy Hour – a little middle of the road, but refreshingly different to the rest of the album.

Don’t Talk About This Love – quite a nice little ballady type song. Won’t set the World alight, but still rather nice nevertheless.

Heaven – Tolerable but plods a long a little, the ‘you, you, you’ and the ‘witchoo’ grates quite a bit.

Make Me Cry – again, a little dull/repetitive.

Boy Like You – I do quite like this one, but again, it’s not amazing. Something to dance to in a club though.