Dina Carroll first came to pop's attention a decade ago, when she was the featured warbler on dance duo Quartz's remake of Carole King's 'It's Too Late'.
She then emerged in her own right in 1993 with the 1.5 million selling (and biggest selling debut album by a British female in the 90s, fact fans) 'So Close', which housed a host of bouncy dance hits ('Ain't No Man', 'Express' and 'Special Kind Of Love') and classy smoochers ('Don't Be A Stranger', 'This Time' and 'So Close') giving Dina a range of diva shapes to try on.
A cover of Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'The Perfect Year', followed almost immediately before things really did start to go awry. Follow-up album 'Only Human' failed to repeat 'So Close''s success, settling on a sort-of lottery-dance-pap fluff ('Living For The Weekend', 'Without Love' and 'One Two Three') which only Dale Winton could find remotely fabulous, and the faux-world flavoured hit 'Escaping'. Dina had also developed an hereditary ear disease as well as a form of claustrophobia which didn't help matters either.
Now after a couple of years being fairly anonymous - save for highlights like the 'A Taste Of Honey' loopin' 'Good To Me', and a sassed remake of 'Son Of A Preacher Man' - Dina returns with a new single, a version of Van Morrison's 'Someone Like You' -off the Bridget Jones's Diary soundtrack- and the Ronan co-written follow-up 'All I Ask', which should put her big grin'n'sweet voice back on the tracks to superstardom.
Sure, there's nothing groundbreaking or insurrectionary going on here, and 'The Very Best Of' does threaten to totally bland out on a couple of occasions, but for admirers of a lady-soul/pop where not every man is a bastard, and for all big sisters everywhere, this is the business.
