For four years as one half of All Saints, Natalie and Nicole Appleton not only scored with some of the catchiest pop of the era but became fashion icons for a generation of teens into the bargain. (They can certainly take much of the credit for the resurgence of combat trousers and the baring of belly buttons!) The group finally imploded two years ago amid messy, tabloid-grabbing rumours and recriminations. Not that they’ve been out of the headlines during that time, what with a string of celebrity boyfriends (Liam Gallagher and Robbie Williams included) distracting attention away from the music.

Now they’re back again, this time strictly operating as a sister act under the family moniker. The much delayed Everything’s Eventual (originally supposed to be entitled Aloud) is apparently the result of 18 months work with a variety of producers and songwriters including Madonna collaborator Marius De Vries.

Was it worth the wait? It depends really. Though their new direction has been described by the duo themselves as, “Alanis Morrissette meets Sheryl Crow,” there remains an inescapable girl-band sensibility running through most of the songs here. The debut single and opener, ‘Fantasy’, is an impressive enough pop song with a nifty guitar riff and memorable chorus, though hardly heralding the promised brave new grown up world. With its gently strumming acoustic guitars and soaring strings, the current single ‘Don’t Worry’ is a tad more “mature” in its outlook and all the better for it. Everything here has a strange ring of familiarity about it – ‘Only Waiting For Your Love’ is a ringer for The Corrs in their prime, the presumably autobiographical ‘All Grown Up’ could be a Robbie Williams single while ‘Hallelujah’ has Abba’s influence writ large all over it. At over six minutes long, ‘Ring-A-Ding-Ding’ attempts a Madonna-like trip-hoppy epic but suffers from production overload. ‘Anyone’ is a decent piano-led ballad with the effect again spoiled by the over-saturation of strings in the mix. More acoustic guitar textures adorn the ethereal and appealing ‘5am’ – an obvious future single while the last and best song here by a mile is ‘Blow My Mind’, a suitably funky vehicle for the girl’s superb voices – though ironically, it sounds more like an All Saints number than anything else here!