Has it recently dawned on Sharleen Spiteri that Texas's slushy, pine-scented AOR is profusely uncool? How else to interpret the ill-judged stab at streetwise credibility sullying this otherwise slickly rendered greatest hits set?
Whoever advised Spiteri to augment her amiable, cuddly-sweater attired backing band with a scowling, record-scratching DJ ought to spend less time listening to Mogwai in darkened bedrooms and more inhabiting the Ikea-adorned cappuccino bars where Texas breezily unassuming drive-time pop finds purchase.
Mercifully, Spiteri's Big Voice eclipses such incongruous club-land affectations. Segueing from splintered lounge croon to seismic falsetto, her roof-raising delivery elevates a performance intermittently threatening to lapse into simpering melodrama.
Spiteri displays a hitherto unhinted flair for comedy when she yanks an ashen heckler from the front row to gyrate with her during Grace Jones's Pull Up to the Bumper. Her spiky patter is disquietingly reminiscent of fellow Glaswegian Billy Connolly. If the hits dissipate she might consider a career in stand-up.
Texas's best moments transcend their lowest-denominator formulism. A lascivious Summer Son, a boisterous Halo , a brassy Black Eyed Boy and a trembling acoustic Put Your Arms Around Me soar when they could have dutifully plodded. Spiteri encores with current single Inner Smile, her leather-wrapped ensemble echoing the songs Elvis themed video. A sonorous Say What You Want follows, melting your cynicism to buttery goo. Cool? Pah - who needs it?