Atlantic
Pop, 2002

Laura Pausini decides to unleash her English debut From the Inside and, well, it doesn’t exactly works. Her voice sounding shakier than it usually does, she belts out dull ballads after ballads – with some unmemorable mid tempo tracks thrown in to increase the monotony – enough to drive me to sleep. This CD is well-produced and assembles the usual ballad powerhouse producers to make Laura Pausini the new Celine Dion or something.

Unfortunately, the CD is filled with nondescript plodding tracks that seem as if they are scraped off the bottom of the Celine Dion reject bin. Performed without any hint of freshness, Ms Pausini is milking the stale here to make rotten cheesy music.

The otherwise average mid tempo track Every Day Is a Monday – a Susannah Hoffs lite track – is the only track where there are at least a little sign that there is life in this CD.

From the Inside is a manufactured type of stale. This is unfortunate, as Ms Pausini’s Spanish and Italian efforts are much more enjoyable than this collection of barely palatable schmaltz.