Album review: Cheryl Cole

CHERYL COLE: 3 WORDS **POLYDOR, £12.72

SEE? It's not always the best singers who get the solo career, as Cheryl Cole beats her Girls Aloud bandmates to the punch by virtue of being the nation's sweetheart, or something.

3 Words begins inauspiciously with the downbeat title track and just about lathers itself up into a mediocre dance-pop album with feeble-to-middling tracks which will sound inoffensive enough on the radio.

Cole sounds like any old airbrushed diva, so it's all business as usual there – but without the terrific, freaky pop songs which have given Girls Aloud such surprising longevity.