What My Heart Wants to Say

Boasting a hefty 16 tracks with the singles all tucked at the beginning, this is hard going at first but despite the inevitable fillers, it's a pretty consistent collection. Gareth and his team have covered most bases for their target audience, doing pastiches of artists such as Atomic Kitten, Kylie, Westlife and most notably (where Gareth excels) George Michael. "Sentimental" is a fine funk-tinged pop song but could easily be mistaken for classic George on a dark night. This is surpassed by the standout "Good Thing", which is also influenced by the Wham! man but has a touch of the soulfulness that Will Young could have done with on his debut.

"(I've Got No) Self Control" is a great piece of disco pop that should keep the Kylie kids happy and Gareth (whether assisted or not) sounds in great voice showing a lot more confidence than he did during the earlier part of 2002. So that's the positive side, the downside is that a fair few of the 16 songs are mere fillers where similar results could be attained with a cheap keyboard's demo button. Nevertheless, there are enough decent songs to make it worthwhile. --Georgina Collins