Two star

THE Pop Idol man mountain ain't all that and a bag of chips.

He followed up his first solo offering, a mediocre version of Whitney's I Will Always Love You, with a murderous cover of Labi Siffre classic Something Inside So Strong.

It's not that Rik has a bad voice - Try A Little Tenderness and I Can't Make You Love Me are testament to that - its just he doesn't bring anything new to most of these songs.

He doesn't 'make them his own' - as music mogul Simon Cowell kept harping on about throughout the Pop Idol series.

The album is a vaguely pleasant sound like the background muzak played in department stores or those tapes you can pick up for a couple of pounds, adequately covered songs that are all much of a muchness.

Tracks I don't recognise include Where Did We Go Wrong, One In A Million, Sacrifice (not the Elton John one), From Now and Miracle In Me.

They may not be covers but they're all ballads and all completely forgettable.

And John Secada's Just Another Day was as cheesy as cheddar the first time around.

MC