Mutya Buena: 'B Boy Baby'

Mutya Buena, bless her Sugababe-shaped socks, is certainly one of life's triers. Despite being knocked back time and time again by the record-buying public, while her ex-bandmates continue to score mega-hits and rack up enviable album sales, she's still plugging away with her Real Girl LP. Her new single 'B Boy Baby', in all it's genre-hopping, half-baked glory, epitomises her failure to capture the nation's hearts as a solo artist. One part Amy Winehouse-style Motown stomp, the other Ronettes-esque girl-group pop, the final outcome is nowhere near as good as either.

Buena was the Sugababe the boys wanted to sleep with and the girls wouldn't want to mess with. She was a little bit dangerous and looked like could knock your block off with a single swish of her thighs. But on 'B Boy Baby' she loses that edge and knocks out a tune that's merely "alright". Frustratingly, she's clearly got the voice and attitude to do so much more than this semi-tuneful and lazy re-working of the classic 'Be My Baby'. Whacked out at the end of the year to cash-in on the bumper sales period, let's hope it it isn't a last hurrah, but rather the end of this chapter for Mutya Buena.


> Click here for our review of Mutya Buena's Real Girl album