Natacha Atlas: Something Dangerous

By GRAHAM REID

(Herald rating: * * *)

A decade ago Atlas leaped into the spotlight as the soaring, ethereal voice out front of some TransGlobal Underground tracks. She brought an air of the exotic and ancient to their dance-trance and her sound - whether she was singing in Arabic or Hindi - was as distinctive as it was thrilling.

This, her fifth solo outing, is typically all over the place as this musical magpie dips into dance, chill-out, airy ballads, trip-hop and her customary North African and Middle Eastern explorations.

Atlas' voice is still a thing of wonder: the opener, Adam's Lullaby, is an almost holy ballad distilled to its essence; in other places she can evoke a marketplace in Morocco or an erotic Arabian night. But here that dextrous instrument is sprinkled behind guest artists as much as it is commanding attention in the foreground.

On the stuttering rhythms of Simple Heart she finds her match with Sinead O'Connor's equally air-borne style, and her half-dozen guest-free appearances are among the best here. But the Timbalands-lite sound of Who's My Baby with soul-rap diva Niara Scarlett is typical of a wasted opportunity as Atlas is relegated to the role of exotic instrument on an otherwise unremarkable slice of r'n'b.

The sheer diversity of styles - from trippy dub on Just Like a Dream with Princess Juliana through the North African ragga style of Eye of the Duck to the gloriously bruising house beat of Daymalhum - makes this a more difficult proposition than some of her previous albums. The dividends come for those who take this slowly and enjoy its small, succulent tastes, as you would Turkish delights.

Her version of James Brown's Man's World, however, while sounding like it was recorded by someone who lives in the clouds, is so moving and full of quietly aching hurts that it seems to have come from a different realm than some of the more mundane things here.

Label: Mantra/Shock