Fake Sugar

Indeed, there’s nothing fake about Ditto anywhere on the album, making Fake Sugar an overwhelmingly welcome return from one of pop music’s greatest vocal talents.

A couple of songs hang too much on their belting choruses, but moments such as the disco-Stones shuffle of Oo La La and the unabashed, dreamy balladry of Love in Real Life more than compensate.

Fake Sugar paints Ditto as a more diverse, often even restrained artist than the larynx-shredding punk aggressor of the mid-00s. That said, the more familiar nocturnal stomps of ‘Go Baby Go’ and ‘Do You Want Me To?’ are still the record’s angular highlights but even so--Fake Sugar remains, at times, a surprisingly sweet listen.

Brilliantly, some songs have the effect of Trentemøller’s electro-rockabilly with Ditto as Tarantino heroine, while elsewhere Stevie Nicks dominates, especially on the title track, which coolly updates Mac with a Balearic house beat.

The Gossip may currently be no more, but with Ditto's solo album, we have a replacement that fills the void.

If Fake Sugar lands, the mainstream's in for a sweet treat. [Aug 2017, p.103]

As catchy as it is smart. [Jul 2017, p.28]

Ditto’s powerhouse voice remains a steely, piercing instrument imbued with Southern sass and dynamic range.

Ditto's solo debut is a continuation of her former band's evolution from garage-y primitivism to a more polished sound where Ditto's vocals approached a smoother grandeur sometimes akin to Laura Branigan or Adele.

Songs such as "Love in Real Life" and "Lover" feel flat and predictable compared to the magnetism Ditto delivers at her finest. Nevertheless, Fake Sugar is a welcome return from a one-of-a-kind voice and personality who was missing from music for too long.

Fake Sugar picks up where her book left off. It bridges the gap between love and loss and taps into her Southern roots to create a record that fully encompasses the person she’s become.

The majority stays well within its comfort zone, cuddling up to the listener, rather than poking them in the eye.

Ditto’s non-traditional view down a well-trodden path is welcome, but you do wish she’d kick up the dust a bit more.

Ooh La La sharpens that edge with a straight-up shot of soul rock revivalism followed by a chaser of electro-groove. Ditto is at her peak at these moments, where she finds a balance between creativity and sneering attitude, and it would have been great to see more of that, and less of the studio-slick professionalism of the album’s sound.

It’s that smoothing of Ditto’s edges that prevents Fake Sugar from moving from a good, perfectly serviceable pop album to something truly great.

Beth Ditto’s debut album is a bit of a mixed bag.

Fake Sugar is a real reinvention for Beth Ditto, but it’s not so much of a reinvention that her signature traits are unrecognisable.