Swing - Original Soundtrack

Following a strong start with a slew of slickly produced soul/dance singles, including 'All Around The World' and 'This Is The Right Time', Lisa Stansfield has failed to live up to her initial promise as a soul diva of substance. Unfortunately, as this undistinguished soundtrack all too clearly demonstrates, she's no jazz singer either.

Despite a stellar line-up of top notch musicians including the great Richie Buckley, Springsteen side-kick Clarence Clemons and Georgie Fame (who also performs a couple of numbers) it's all a bit of a non-event.

The version of 'Ain't What You Do (It's The Way That You Do It)' which opens makes the Fun Boy Three/Bananarama version sound positively avant-garde, while The Four Tops classic 'Baby I Need Your Loving' is stripped of the urgency and passion of the original. The less said about 'Mack The Knife' the better, but I suspect that you'd hear a more accomplished rendition at a wedding - long after closing time!

You can't really fault the playing, which is solid throughout, if a mite predicable. The problem lies mainly with Stansfield herself, whose voice is just not up to the challenge of songs like these present. Much of the time she sounds uncomfortable with the material - a situation made worse by her over-emphasis on the phrasing.

Perhaps the movie is better!