Heather Small: (Arista) The distinctive, chocolatey voice of Heather Small clogged up the arteries of AOR radio for most of the 1990s, so it was inevitable that she would take her assets out of M People and go the solo route. Don't panic, though: M People haven't broken up, so we can look forward to lots more coffee-table soul from them. Meanwhile, here's Heather, expressing things she couldn't express while in the band (it says here), and bringing in such collaborators as Pete Vettese and Simon Climie to help her express them. So, what makes songs such as Holding On, Don't Look For Love, Change Your World and Garden Of Eden any different from M People's stuff? Easy: M People were Terry's Chocolate Orange; Heather Small is Fry's Chocolate Cream.
Metisse: My Fault (Wildstar)
A mellow musical marriage between exotic singer Aida and producer/musician Skully, Metisse have already made a mark on the global scene. Last year's single, Sousounde, popped up in numerous dance charts, while Boom Boom Ba has found its way on to the soundtrack of Madonna's current movie, The Next Best Thing. Metisse met in Toulouse, moved to West Cork, and now the world is their oyster. My Fault mixes Afrobeats with chillout grooves and hypnotic melodies - ideal fodder for those Cafe Del Mar compilations. Sometimes it sounds a bit too new age-y for comfort, and Aida's voice, while technically excellent, doesn't exactly exude emotion. but songs such as Sadness, My Fault and Walking Home are richly textured and rather intoxicating.
Iron Maiden: Brave New World (Iron Maiden Holdings)
Run for the hills! Bring your daughter to the slaughter! Britain's biggest cartoon-rockers are back, as thud-thirsty as ever, and with Bruce Dickinson howling at the helm once again following his dabblings in humorous novel writing. Metallica may be messing around with philharmonic orchestras, but the new, 21st-century Maiden sounds reassuringly the same as the old, schlock-metal Maiden. On the cover, the band's evil mascot, Eddie, hovers over a futuristic London, while inside, Dickinson, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Janick Gears, Steve Harris and Nicko McBrain do what they do best: good old-fashioned, dungeons'n'dragons fare such as The Wicker Man, Ghost Of The Navigator, Brave New World and The Nomad. To borrow from Bruce's book: it's a bit Iffy.
