Ciara seems to be suffering from the frustrating characteristic held by many of today’s pop chanteuses – that includes you, Miss Knowles – in that she occasional proves that she can provide good tunes (in this case, for instance, the superb neo-soul funkness of ‘Pick Up The Phone’)and yet ends up knocking out a load of dire ones as well (like her painfully half-arsed number 1 ‘smash’ ‘My Goodies’). Interesting, then, that her new single ‘1, 2 Step’ should lie somewhere in between – and frankly that’s about as interesting as it gets.

It’s not bad per se, it’s just taking it back to the old school when we’ve already had enough return visits, thanks. It uses cold, synthetic Kraftwerkian beats with a hip-hop flava, but instead of coming off as a work of Bambaata-style brilliance it ends as simply bland, despite the odd attempt at a ‘holler’. And although Missy Elliot turns up to try and enliven proceedings, like many of her recent raps it sounds like she knocked off the rhymes on a ten-minute limo-ride to the studio. Overall it’s pleasant enough, but in the vital club situation you’d have a job remembering it five seconds after the next tune kicks in. Sort it out, will ya?