From her days of Groovejet to a consistent portfolio of top pop singles, Sophie Ellis Bextor has carved a niche as one of the most enjoyable yet slightly shy of the big time popstars around. Her last album Trip The Light Fantastic was painfully underrated, from the exuberant electro pop of Catch You to the Xenomania gem If You Go, it still stands up to repeat listens. After a successful collaboration with dance-pop wizards the Freemasons last year on Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer) the pair show up on her new release Bittersweet (alongside pop songwriters supreme Richard "Biffco" Stannard and Hannah Robinson).With the Freemasons on board you'd probably be thinking that Bittersweet is a stomper. And you'd be right. An epic slice of chilly electro pop, the chorus plays that fine line between desire and disdain that suits Bextor's vocals perfectly. It already feels like a proper stormer of a tune, the kind of thing Bextor needs to reaffirm her place on the pop heap. If that weren't enough there is a rather heavenly extended mix by the Freemasons that will probably go down something of a storm in the clubs.
