N-Dubz: Love. Live. Life – review

Love. Live. Life, the third album by the London pop/grime/dance trio, will surely enter next week's albums chart very high, but they've got bigger fish to fry – next on their to-do list, according to rapper Dappy, is breaking the US. That must account for the reference to Mariah Carey on new single Girls, and the American accents on the smoky bedroom jam Toot It and Boot It, not to mention the crisp R&B styling of Morning Star and Love Sick. And on So Alive, Dappy makes no bones about where their sights are set: "I'm trying to do what Elvis done." But if they sound transatlantic, their lyrics are still quintessentially British, especially on Living for the Moment, wherein singer Tulisa Contostavlos morosely asks: "Life's a bitch and then you die/ If you don't care then why should I?" Their teen audience will love it; adults may find it all too frantic.