THE 24-year-old New Yorker Norah Jones follows up her five Grammy-grabbing debut, the mellow jazz-blues fusion Come Away With Me, with a musical journey into a brave new world - down some country roads.

The Norah Goes Nashville-feel peaks in the thigh-slapping hoedown duet with Dolly Parton, Creepin' In, which smacks of Jones having a laugh at all the expectations weighing on her.

The rest of the CD is more suggestive, but still country bound. Fans won over by Jones's exquisite voice should find plenty here to delight in, most notably the slow and sleepy opener, Sunrise (the first single), and Carnival Town, where her voice is at its dreamiest.

There's some rock and blues in here too: In The Morning, her wondrous wail seduced by a Wurlitzer and Above Ground, given a funky edge by warbling bass and harmonised vocals.

It is not as complete nor as perfect as Come Away With Me, but there's enough here for fans to get a satisfying fix on the considerably talented Miss Jones.

Melua is the 19 year old who came from nowhere to knock Dido off the number one spot with this, her debut album.

She has been championed by Terry Wogan on Radio 2 and mentored by Mike Batt (yes, of Wombles fame) who 'discovered' her at music school and wrote half the tracks on her first CD.

So perhaps it's no wonder that it's all so nauseatingly naff. Melua possesses one of those sing-by-numbers stage-school voices: each vowel and consonant so clearly enunciated, no syllable lost.

She pronounces wine as 'whine' and hills as 'heels'. She's English, via a childhood in Belfast and the former Soviet Union, but you'd never know from her identikit vocals. The lyrics are one step up from nursery rhymes. Some quarters are hailing her as the new Norah Jones. Please. Stop. See sense.

A more apt comparison would be a West End show singer or some MOR has-been. And speaking of such, there's even a cover of Elkie Brooks's Lilac Wine. How did something this bad get to be seen as so good?

Updated: 09:11 Thursday, February 12, 2004