Awake & Breathe

However hard it might have been for mar dhea credible bands like Nirvana, The Stone Roses, The Verve and Kula Shaker to follow-up successful breakthrough or debut albums, it must be ten times harder for a ‘mere’ Pop act supposedly created out of nothing by a combination of faceless stylists and studio technicians.

Still, I’d put serious money down that you won’t hear B*Witched bitching about how they never intended the eponymous first record to shift over three million copies, how they ‘just wanted to make music for themselves’ and ‘if anyone else liked it that was a bonus’.

B*Witched were up for stardom once they started and were well prepared to put in the work, the kind of graft and commitment which would make most slack-jawed, guitar-scraping sulkers recoil in horror. Three of the singles on their debut – ‘C’est La Vie’, ‘Rollercoaster’ and ‘Blame It On The Weatherman’ – were outstanding slices of Pure Pop and regardless of who wrote what, B*Witched smeared their collective personality all over those tracks – the only thing that matters when you’re playing this particular game. For Awake & Breathe they’ve stretched their scope somewhat and, while not completely ditching the kiddie-centric catchiness which characterised their first foray, have bravely attempted to grow up musically. Unfortunately they don’t quite pull it off.

Like most contemporary Pop albums Awake & Breathe kicks off with a clutch of likely singles, ‘If It Don’t Fit’ offering feisty swingbeat with nicely overloaded guitars, ‘Jesse Hold On’ just about maintaining B*Witched’s high standards despite the handicap of an annoying banjo riff and ‘Jump Down’ finding the girls heading further into sassy pop.

After that things become interesting and horrifying by turns. ‘Someday’ and ‘Are You A Ghost?’ see B*Witched in balladic territory previously – and successfully – charted by The Bangles and Madonna, the surprising maturity of the vocals working well against the glacial efficiency of the backing but the forced funk of ‘My Superman’ is poor Spice Girls-lite, ‘The Shy One’ tries too hard to be sassy and the less said about ‘Red Indian Girl’ the better.

B*Witched have already achieved as much as any Pop band has a right to expect. They’ve been afforded their moment in the sun, relished it and done themselves proud but they’re operating in the toughest, most merciless division in the music world and whether they can sustain their sparkle through this sophomore set will be interesting to watch. There are at least five more solid singles here and if they go on to make a third album, that at least assures us of a cracking ‘greatest hits’ collection come, oh, 2002. And no, I’m not being ironic. Pop is far too important for that.