Martine McCutcheon is one of those non-descript celebrities who fails to rouse any emotion. You'd be hard pushed to remember a time when she evoked any feeling of hate in you. Or love for that matter.
Needless to say, her existence in the pop world has yet to make any more of an impact. Her debut 'You, Me and Us' may have slipped into the Top 3 quietly enough, but it slipped out again quieter still, leaving little to suggest that it was there in the first place. Disappointingly, her second offering 'Wishing' seems to be headed in the same direction.
Martine clearly loves doing that dreamy, forlorn lurrve song thang. And she has a strong and tuneful enough voice -witness recent fine single 'I'm Over You'. She may be no Christina Aguilera but she's certainly not a Geri Halliwell either. And while she's clearly quite capable of carrying a tune, you're never convinced that she's really feeling her songs. Meanhwhile it's difficult to work out if the wistfulness that smothers tracks like 'Teardrops', 'Love Changes Nothing' and the sickeningly sweet 'Cried So Many Nights', is intentional or just a ploy to get out of affecting any emotion.
But 'Wishing' isn't just stuffed full of schmaltz. Martine has swotted up on 80s disco pop (that Stock, Aitken and Waterman have a lot to answer for…) in an obvious attempt to try and fool us into thinking that she's just as good as Kylie. The upbeat, Earth Wind & Fire party feel of 'Tonight' and album closer 'Everybody' bear the most resemblance, the difference being Martine struggles to deliver that disco diva vibe with much charm or passion. Even her cover of Donna Summer's 'On The Radio' sounds like nothing more that competent Sunday night karaoke in your local.
"What you see is what you get, there is nothing more," she cries on the imaginatively titled 'What You See Is What You Get' and never a truer a word spoke. That really is all, folks.
McCutcheon won't be remembered as one of music's innovators or risk-takers and it's a fairly safe bet to say that there won't be any 'Kid A's in her career. In fact, if 'Wishing' is anything to go by, it'll be a miracle if anyone manages to remember her at all.
Buy 'Wishing' right HERE.
