Remember Estelle? No? How about Est’elle? Still not? Hmm. She had a moderate hit with likeable autobiographical hip-hop skit '1980' about four years ago? Yes, that’s the one. Well, Estelle Swaray, to give her her full title, is back with her second album, and has abandoned her native West London lifestyle for the more exotic climes of New York.
Having worked with the then-unknown r ‘n’ b star John Legend on her 2004 debut The 18th Day, Legend has now returned the favour by signing Estelle to his new Homeschool Records label, and taking up the mantle of executive producer on Shine. What’s more, he's drafted in an all-star supporting cast headed by Kanye West who guests on the lead single, 'Shine'.
Although it aspires to the innovatory heights of his solo material, its Hall & Oates-style disco-synth vibe falls flat, West’s contribution practically phoned-in. Shine’s unmitigated hit comes courtesy of Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo Green on the Motown-tastic ‘Pretty Please’ – a ’60-girl-group, handclap-happy song stamped with such a seal of quality that it flagrantly embarrasses its peers.
Despite the best efforts of Black Eyed Pea will.i.am (and his frenzied cut-and-paste job on ‘Wait A Minute’), Wyclef Jean (the muddled ‘So Much Out The Way’) and Legend himself (the downright awful saccharine duet ‘You Are’), Shine remains a terribly average r’n’b album that occasionally flickers with possibility, but never burns brightly enough to really matter. Estelle who?

Key track: ‘Pretty Please’