POP acts live or die by the single. Moody teenage trio Sugababes made their career with an impressive batch - from their effortlessly cool debut, Overload, written when they were barely out of the playground, to their Gary Numan-powered comeback Freak Like Me.

Likewise, posh pop starlet Sophie Ellis-Bextor was rescued from obscurity by the good fortune of singing on Spiller's dancefloor fixture Groovejet.

But you have to come up with the goods in the album department to escape the teen pop ghetto.

The Sugababes kick off their latest in fine style with new single Hole In The Head, which is up there with their best. Electronic thumper Whatever Makes You Happy, and moody ballad Caught In A Moment, keep up the good work.

But soon it goes the way of most pop albums, lapsing into forgettable filler.

There are a few more flickers of excitement, such as the raunchy electronic workout Nasty Ghetto, and the girls try to demonstrate their maturity with a Diane Warren-penned orchestrated ballad, Too Lost In You. It's a solid record, but without enough stand-outs to make the 'Babes' rulers of the pop world.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor clearly yearns after musical credibility, but can't escape from being the throwaway pop artist she thinks she's too clever to be.

She aspires to the ironic, intelligent pop cool of bands such as St Etienne and Black Box Recorder - but there was more to them than just a posh voice.

She heavily references the Pet Shop Boys on decent single Making Music, and drafts in ex-Suede guitar-for-hire Bernard Butler. But what she comes up with is still forgettably bland 1980s wine bar music - if given an air of class by her finishing-school precise voice. When the CD finished, it took me five minutes to realise I'd forgotten it was on.

Updated: 11:39 Thursday, November 06, 2003