Gotta Tell You

Gotta Tell You is well christened. Begotten, not made, of one part sass to two parts panache and verve, Samantha Mumba’s drawing from a gene pool that all the boy bands inside and out of the Pale could only ever manage to doggie paddle in. For once, the hype is telling it like it is.

So what’s she got that the rest don’t? Well, a soul sensibility that’s culled from three decades of Motown classics; more street smarts than the entire Soprano clan, and a pelvis that owes more to Jennifer Lopez and Janet Jackson than to the disrhythmic hiccups of most other inhabitants of this island.

Mumba’s stamp is in the half dozen tracks she has the good sense to co-write. It’s in the refreshing absence of comatose covers so beloved of the rest of Walsh’s stable – okay, apart from the ‘Signed Sealed Delivered’ homage to Little Stevie Wonder, a bonus track on the UK release). It’s in the Detroitville horns of ‘What’s It Gonna Be’. This is music that would’ve put a swing in the sway of Curtis Mayfield and Marvin, no kidding.

The title track and ‘Body 2 Body’ bullet-blast off the whole affair with a knowing smile. And once you’ve paid up for that double shuffle, there’s no place else to hide. What follows is full-frontal assault on the pop prince and princesses that lurk beneath the epidermis in all of us, whether we admit it or not. Listen to ‘Lately’ and dare to resist singing second harmonies into your hairbrush.

So there’s the odd lapse in style, with just slivers of Mariah-esque overkill on ‘Feelin Is Right’, perfect for the U.S. market, drenched in oh-so-plaintive piano, and replete with nothing more complex than a string of monosyllables, all the better to mouth grimacingly along with.

But such errors of judgement are thin enough on the ground. Mumba gives ephemeral a good name. Maybe that’s because she’s hell-bent on being more than fodder for another three-minute time-filler on MTV.