Tanya Donnelly was the indie queen of the 1990s, the driving force behind a string of classic albums with no fewer than three bands: Throwing Muses, Belly and the Breeders. At the height of her success, however, the enigmatic Bostonian took five years out to have a baby - and sadly the hiatus seems to have done her creative powers no good whatsoever. Her crystal voice sounds as seductive as ever on this, her second solo album, but these twee songs of domestic bliss are far removed from the gothic posturings that once seduced a whole generation of fashionable college students. The truth is that Donnelly sounds more content than she's ever been, which is nice for her but has taken most of the edge off her songwriting - and reduced BeautySleep to sounding like nothing so much as a boring country album. A massive disappointment.
