Fergie: The Dutchess

Herald rating: * *

When Fergie joined the Black Eyed Peas they said goodbye to subtlety. So it's no surprise to find her solo pop album just as brash, with all the mojo and attitude that helped make them hip-pop pin-ups.

Although the Peas' will.i.am steps into production duties, Fergie attempts to escape from the pod by covering as many genres as possible. Fergalicious, to the tune of J.J. Fad's Supersonic, is cartoonish enough to make a Peas album, but Finally is more Disney movie than hip-hop.

Fergie has quite a set of pipes that she shows off on Big Girls Don't Cry but the faux-ragga-style of Voodoo Doll sounds like she's auditioning for the Jamaican version of The Lion King.

Elsewhere you'd wish she'd drop the sex kitten act and act her age (31). But this is the woman who sang about her "humps". So she sings about the boys who "come and go like the seasons" and all the first-class flights she gets to take on Glamorous, a song even fluffier than Jessica Simpson's Public Affair.

Worst of all, we risk having a conniption after repeated listens of London Bridge. Who'd imagine one pea could be so hard to swallow?

Label: Universal