With all the ballyhoo surrounding the recent fortunes of UK guitar bands, there has been a tendency for the continuing rise of British black music to get forgotten, a real shame as the scene is developing a style and character which – if not totally removed from US influences – is certainly developing its own voice. Terri Walker is the latest name to glide effortlessly from the world of specialist media and clubs to the mainstream by virtue of her Mercury nominated debut. All of which has upped the pressure on the follow up not to alienate those who have lately come to appreciate her undoubted talent.
The result is a record that plays it disappointingly safe, placing the artist against a backdrop of over familiar, uninspiring R'n'B. Whereas Roots Manuva, Dizzee, Taz, Estelle and Dynamite have all stamped their own style on their music, Walker has little to make her stand out, a ridiculous state of affairs given that she can so obviously do wonders with a good tune – the frantic ‘Whoopsie Daisy’ is good enough to match anything the US divas care to throw this way. The problem is that there just isn’t enough of this sort of quality to make L.O.V.E. more than a passable listen, and inspire any sort of emotion aside from apathy.