Nina Gordon used to be half of Veruca Salt, and after listening to this album I'd have to say that it must have been Louise Post who pumped most of the saline into Veruca Salt. The recent VS release sans Gordon, although uneven, was a good record that carried on the piss and vinegar sound of that band. Gordon, on the other hand has broken with tradition, with this watered down, overly sweetened record that just doesnÕt quite cut it.

Her first solo effort sounds promising to begin with, but it just doesn't contain any of the meaty hooks necessary to make this kind of record work. It smacks of Sheryl Crow here, and Juliana Hatfield there, but much of the time it teeters dangerously on the brink of Wilson Phillips land. Some of the songs even reminded me of Shania Twain--which isn't necessarily a bad thing--but the songs just aren't all that strong.

On songs like "Badway" she has a go at the tough-chick-on-a-mission sound that Veruca Salt championed, but set amid the rest of this half-baked top-40 sounding fare, it just seems kind of pathetic. Save your money on this one. You were going to do that anyway, I'm sure.