Sophie Ellis-Bextor-”Shoot from the hip

The ever-posh Sophie Ellis-Bextor -“ she who created Murder on the Dancefloor and sang on the beautiful Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love) -“ is back with her second album, Shoot From The Hip. The album looks promising at first. The first single, Mixed Up World, is getting lots of airplay and charting pretty well in Australia, and it’s also a really catchy, decent track. Unfortunately it pretty much stands alone on Shoot From The Hip, which fades into mediocrity pretty soon after track one. Sophie’s voice always sounds great and there are moments of excellence in songs like Love It Is Love (written with Blur brains Alex James) and the soulful I Am Not Good At Not Getting What I Want, which is one of those rare ballads that actually create an honest emotional response. It’s almost country. But those readers who love her as a voice on the top of the track they’re stomping along to will find it dull, at best. Anyway, buy it. Ellis-Bextor can sing a hundred times better than most of the other women vocalists ahead of her on the charts, and a thousand times better than the devil you know.