Nick Lachey
What's Left Of Me
Jive/SonyBMG


Turning your marriage into a television program is not going to be healthy for the relationship, as Nick Lachey found after Jessica Simpson ditched him after the show finished. You'd think this experience would teach you to keep your private life private, right? Wrong.

As far as Lachey's concerned, the bitter break-up only gave him material for his new album, 'What's Left Of Me'. The title track and first single shows Lachey is not coy about his true feelings of the publicised break-up, but then persists to throw it all back into Simpson's face in every other song. There's the distressed and depressed Nick Lachey in Everywhere But Here and Shades Of Blue, the angry and bitter Nick Lachey in I Do It For You, the defeated, but still emotionally-attached, Nick Lachey in I Can't Hate You Anymore, the last-laugh Nick Lachey who predicts she'll regret what she's done in Ghosts and finally a Nick Lachey who has accepted his fate in Resolution and Alone.

Vocally, Lachey is surprisingly good, he hits the high notes and, naturally, with all that boy-band training, results in sounding like your regular Backstreet Boy. On a whole, 'What's Left Of Me' expectedly has that American, overly-produced and polished sheen and any one of the tracks are possible future chart hits. Although there isn't anything innovative or too exciting, pop fans will eat it up, especially those in the mood for something soppy. I did think that Lachey might disappear into our distant memories after his divorce, but it seems he is determined to make it on his own. Who could blame the ex-Mr. Jessica Simpson? But next time maybe he'll have something a little more cheery to sing about.

Sherree Woodmore