It's safe to say that lots of musical snobs will hate this album even before they hear it. After all, Katie Melua is one of those Terry Wogan/Michael Parkinson-approved MOR songstresses who are taking over music and making it all easy-listening. It's certainly true that Piece By Piece is very easy on the ears, but is that really such a bad thing? Surely there is a time and a place for gentle music like this?

It was very appropriate that Melua's breakthrough song Closest Thing To Crazy was used in a sofa advert as that is exactly where her music sounds best, lounging on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon.

Would you rather listen to Metallica in that situation, or The Libertines? Speaking personally I can't think of any situation where I'd like to listen to The Libertines, or Babyshambles for that matter... Anyway, surely someone like Melua, who writes a few songs on here as well as playing guitar and piano, is much more preferable to the likes of Rachel Stevens and Liberty X?

But anyway, enough attempts to justify her existence, what is Piece By Piece actually like? Fortunately, it is rather more cohesive than Call Off The Search, which seemed a little bit too much like an album of filler put together around the big hit. Piece By Piece is more like an album that holds together, which makes it a much more satisfying piece of work.

Wombles guru Mike Batt is still very much in charge here, writing four of the songs while producing and arranging the album, but he does give Melua the chance to write four tracks by herself, with admittedly varying results. The title track is a very nice tune with melancholy lyrics, and the same can be said for I Cried For You, while I Do Believe In Love is a sentimental album closer.

However, Spider's Web is a little less convincing, with rather simplistic lyrics unforunately echoing Ebony And Ivory by using piano keys as a guide to racial harmony. Bizarrely, she also covers The Cure's Just Like Heaven, actually making a good fist of it, which will confound expectations. None of Piece By Piece is remotely challenging, and many people will slag it off for that, but is Kid A a better album than The Bends because it is more 'challenging'?