Tissues and Issues

Whatever happened to the little girl with the voice of an angel? Well, Charlotte Church, like everyone else, grew up and decided to move from her comfort zone of angelic soprano albums in the supposed classical area (although her product had always been aimed at the pop charts), leaving behind Voice of an Angel, Charlotte Church, and Dream a Dream and entering a crowded female pop field already inhabited by the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Girls Aloud. The first two tracks, the disco-funk-oriented "Call My Name" and "Crazy Chick," both became Top Ten singles, with the Boy George-composed ballad "Even God Can't Change the Past" and "Moodswings" not far behind. She even tried her hand at songwriting, albeit with proven successful writers as collaborators: Guy Chambers, who had worked extensively with Robbie Williams, on the pumping disco track "Let's Be Alone," the Spanish-style ethereal ballad "Casualty of Love" (on which she got an opportunity to show that her soprano voice is still intact), and the final track, "Confessional Song"; Rob Davis on the aptly titled "Easy to Forget" (which unfortunately is not a patch on another of his songs); Kylie Minogue's "Can't Get You Out of My Head"; and Gary Barlow on the midtempo "Easy Way Out." She sang "Don't you judge me as I leave it all behind, I was the victim" on the track "Fool No More," and one wonders if that was Church's attempt to explain the complete change of musical direction. As a little girl, she had no choice about the type of material she recorded, but here she grabbed the adult mantle with both hands, and smooth pop-soul would be the future for a singer who was not such a little girl any more.