3

Excrutiatingly Bland.

One has to fight the urge to switch off 'Break Away' from the moment it begins with a fake feedback effect, an impulse that grows ever stronger as the track progresses with a dodgy psuedo-spoken word/rap verse before launching into an excrutiatingly bland pop-rock chorus. Marion Raven is clearly Norway's answer to Avril Lavinge, who is herself one "artist" the music scene would be better off without. Lyrically the song is the usual drivel about apparently feeling pleased to have broken up with someone who treated you badly - "bet you never though that I could break you ... tell me who's the one who's crying now". Female fury never sounded so insincere.

'Falling Away' unfortunately continues along the same unadventurous road, it is in fact difficult to make any distinction between the tracks except to say that the second is perhaps even more irritating and tinny than the first. Final offering 'Here I Am' is a Britney Spears-esque "ballad" with uninspired guitar strumming and as much emotion as people usually display when paying for their groceries. All three songs are formulaic, dull and cheesier than an old sock, but no doubt will go down well with young teenagers who like to pretend music like this is rock because it has angsty lyrics and the odd guitar.