Cilmi to the core

Another day, another Amy bloody Winehouse. Except this time around, 16yo Melbourne prodigy Gabriella Cilmi has one high heel firmly wedged in the contemporary pop pavement crack, thank God. Xenomania were enlisted to co-write and produce the new album, ironically resulting in a 100% WAG-free Girls Aloud album that at times verges on the very indie sound the Girls attacked recently; you know, all those real guitars, bum notes n stuff. For half the Aussie record-buying, non-Fitness-First-attending public who haven’t even heard of GA, it will all sound foot-tappingly novel. Five of the tracks on Lessons To Be Learned leap out with that trademark Xeno sound, including the UK bonus Echo Beach. But it’s the slower tracks like Safer that best give those freakishly-mature vocals justice and showcase Higgins & Co’s underheralded knack for writing ballads. Listen out for the eerie throwback to ABBA’s Waterloo in Don’t Want To Go To Bed.