Louise: (EMI/First Avenue)

Louise is the girl who used to be in Eternal, is married to footballer Jamie Redknapp, and whose two previous solo albums, Naked and Woman In Me, went platinum and turned her into a sex symbol for the Loaded set. Elbow Beach is named after the place where she and Jamie spent their honeymoon, and if you want to know what the pair got up to in the evenings, then songs such as First Kiss (The Wedding Song), For Your Eyes Only and Bedtime might provide a clue. In an attempt to find the woman in herself, Louise has taken more of a hand in writing the tunes, and the result is an album of hi-energy pop/r & b, a bit more sophisticated than Britney Spears, but still far too insipid to hold a candle to Madonna.

Kevin Courtney