Nerina Pallot - ‘Learning To Breathe’ (14th Floor) Released 08/01/07

Why oh why oh why?! Do record companies still insist on putting out this faux-meaningful bilge? More than that, who the hell is buying it? Nerina Pallot’s follow up single to the ridiculously un-moving ‘Everybody’s Gone To War’ sounds like the theme tune to a bad American soap opera. While she undoubtedly has a great voice its pretty well hidden under masses of over-production courtesy of producer and fiancée Howard Willing, who, the press release desperately points out, has worked with the Smashing Pumpkins, but unfortunately this adds not a shred of credibility to the track.

Basically this single is for your mum, if she reads the Daily Mail then all the better. B-Side to the track is a cover version of Joy Division's classic ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ but which has handily been left of the promotional copy of the single. Probably for the best because any music writer with a shred of dignity would probably remove their ears were they to hear it reduced to the soulless emotional vaccume that Pallot seems to create.