Macy Gray - 'Finally Made Me Happy'

Macy Gray's debut album On How Life Is captured her cartoonish, slightly unhinged personality so well that her subsequent output has always paled in comparison. She's never come close to matching its sales - 1.2 million in the UK alone - or managed to unleash a single as transcendent as the anthemic 'I Try'.

So, on 'Finally Made Me Happy' - her first single in four years - Gray's hooked up with the Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am in a bid to revive her fortunes. It's not a bad idea - look at how the equally hip Timbaland has revitalised Nelly Furtado of late - but Gray hasn't been surrounded by beats as sharp and unrelenting as a Joan Rivers put-down here. Instead, she's restyled herself as a classy soul diva crooning a string-drenched, 70s-style ballad. And you know what? Will.i.am has pulled off a trick as remarkable as Timbaland's giving Furtado sex appeal on 'Maneater'. He's managed to make Macy Gray, a singer who sounds like a cross between Marge Simpson and Daffy Duck, seem boring.