Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

I often wondered what happened to Mayfair Laundry who released a couple of albums a few years back. Their infectious blend of pop, rock and ska saw Kim Dexter teamed with her husband Paul who produces Kim's first solo album. This is less lively than the band stuff but "Take Me Down" is an enigmatic promising start with some great ear catching sounds to kick off the track, a good groove and a catchy tune. I've been playing it a lot on Rimmerama. "Kiss The Son" is equally upbeat and poppy and then the album slides down into ballad territory and Kim's superb voice sometimes takes on the emotional quality of Julie Miller on the slower stuff, especially "Promises". There are still a couple of upbeat things to break up the ballads so "Fill Me Up" has a cool dance groove and the pure pop catchiness of "Wait To Get To You" is a delight. The thing is, there's no doubting that Dexter knows how to pen memorable material and there are moments like on "Take Me Down" where this is outstanding. The problem is that a lot of this is good, very good in fact but it fails to deliver the total knock out punch I was hoping for.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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