Tracey Ullman is Britain's biggest TV comic, and while her renditions of rock chestnuts are pleasant enough at face value, it's her tweaky cheekiness that turns You Broke My Heart in 17 Places into more than an exercise in nostalgia. You might have to go back to Josie Cotton or Blondie's first records to find the sheer love of witty melodrama that Ullman incorporates into the mid-Sixties plushness of "Move Over Darling" (first sung by Doris Day in Pillow Talk) or the delightfully melodic single, Kirsty MacColl's "They Don't Know," which is awash in church bells and echoey vocals.

Ullman seems equally comfortable when the tempos heat up, as in the peppy "Break-A-Way" or "Bobby's Girl." Still, from its muddy sound to its have-a-laugh stance, this record is British enough to tax the most devout Anglophile, and by side two, Ullman's puckish charm wears a little thin. "Long Live Love" and "Shattered" (not the Stones song) come off as little more than telethon pop. But Ullman has a way with a melody, and the title track, the album's next-to-last cut, brings things round to the high note where they started. This may not be the bravest album ever recorded, but it's quite an enjoyable diversion all the same. (RS 421)

CHRISTOPHER CONNELLY