KELLI ALI Inferno High Love (One Little Indian)
KELLI ALI Tigermouth (One Little Indian)
Half-Indian, half-Irish Brummie ex-punk Kelli Ali used to be the singer with the Sneaker Pimps, until she was invited to leave by the rest of the band for apparently being too good. Her first solo single, "Inferno High Love", is modern, highly polished and processed radio-friendly pop/dance music. However, it wears an element of mystery, possibly even white magic, and a mild psychedelic frosting that sets it apart from the factory fodderstompf of the Minogues of this world. The best track here is the really quite fine "Lucifer Rising", which, in a crucial and baffling miscalculation, fails to find its way onto her debut album, "Tigermouth".
The album is very much in the same vein as the single, containing ten tracks of expensively-tooled electronic burbling. There's the occasional eastern tinge ("Paper Moon" and the uncredited hidden title track, for example) and a smattering of acoustic guitar ("Teardrop", "Here Comes The Summer"). In fact, over the space of 50 minutes, Kelli Ali's music develops an uncanny kinship with the kind of work Madonna has been producing over the last decade or so, although it doesn't quite posses the immaculately tailored quality of Mrs Ritchie's output, feeling slightly cheaper and flashier. Ali's recent support slot on the Garbage tour seems appropriate as well, "Tigermouth" also demonstrating a softer, fuzzier version of that band's regimented, frosty electronica. If an album that evokes not unflattering comparisons with Madonna and Garbage sounds like your sort of thing, "Tigermouth" is unlikely to disappoint.