As half of Alisha's Attic, Shelly Poole has already had plenty of chart success in her time, as well as writing songs for the likes of Atomic Kitten, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Elizabeth Fraser and Rachel Stevens. But don't let any of that put you off this, her debut solo album, which is very pleasant indeed.

Poole doesn't seem to be aiming for the charts this time, and none of Hard Time For The Dreamer sound like anything you'd find on an Atomic Kitten album.

Right from the opening title track, the music contained within is mostly acoustic, mellow singer-songwriter fare rather than pop, although funky single Totally Underwater does show some flashes of her other fare.

However, Little Wonder and Out In The Open are more like the kind of radio-friendly AOR that Poole has crafted here, with both of them being very pretty tunes, while Don't Look That Way is much slower and her voice sounds almost like Natalie Imbruglia at times on it.

Young New Yorker Jack Savoretti guest stars on a couple of tracks, having met Poole when she was writing songs for his album, and the first of these Anyday Now is probably the best on Hard Time For The Dreamer. He has a nice warm voice and the repetitive melody of the song, which is apparently about the film Out Of Africa keeps it rolling along very nicely.

He pops up again on album closer Hope, a duet where his 'character' has done the lady some wrong and is begging to be forgiven, not that we find out whether she does let him off the hook or not. Nevertheless, it is another nice song to round off an album that isn't spectacular but makes for very pleasant listening on a dark Autumn evening.