'7'

Welcome to pop-world. S Club 7, created for our idle amusement, have become an unstoppable killing machine, and what they're killing is creativity. Most chart records today are bought by nine-to-fifteen year-olds; it's disposable marketable McMusic, and it's not going to go away any time soon. Teen pop, according to Q magazine, has eaten the record industry.

What we've got here is really a compilation album. There's no thread running through these grooves: the guys do the R 'n' B thing, while the girls do the up-tempo dancey numbers.

To be fair, (wait 'till I wave my credibility goodbye...) there's a couple of belters here. The single 'Reach' has a pleasantly Motowny feel, as does 'Love Train'. The only thing is that the Supremes do it so much better. The ten-year-olds who're going to buy this in droves don't know who Diana Ross is, and they don't care.

Must we fling this filth at our pop-kids? Yes we must, because they want it. As a famous glamourpuss once said, 'Let them eat cake'.