IT was with a heavy heart and a feeling of impending doom that I forced myself to sit down and listen to this album.

Mainly because I have previously heard the first single from Piece By Piece, Nine Million Bicycles, on the radio, and it instantly made me feel brain-numbingly melancholic.

Katie Melua, whose debut album Call Off The Search was a massive success in 2003, is cut from similar cloth to messy-haired and thoroughly irritating singer/songwriter Jamie Cullum, and the pair have paved the way for a new generation of young, talented blues and jazz artists.

She has a lovely wistful tone to her voice and can certainly knock out a decent tune, the only problem is that the majority of them make her sound at best faintly bored and at worst downright miserable.

However, if you can refrain from bawling like a baby and crying "woe is me" before you've even got to track four, this album is definitely worth a listen.

The title track and Blues In The Night are probably the best but many of the others have their musical merits.

All credit to Katie for doing what she does so well but hopefully she'll lighten up a bit before the release of her third album.

MC