With her divorce from a cheating husband and battle with malaria taking up many a headline over the last 12 months, Cheryl Cole (the only woman on earth who actually cry’s angel’s tears) has had plenty to be upset about.

However with none of the lyrics having been written by Cole herself, we were unlikely to be treated to an insight into her feelings about the last year. It’s hard to believe that her real reaction to Ashley Cole’s infidelity being splashed all over the tabloids for months was; “I cut off my hair and I painted my toes, I sold all the diamonds and burnt all your clothes.”

Opening track ‘Promise This’, despite the repetitive vocal hook (“Alouette, ouette, ouette”) showing up unnecessarily throughout, is still an impressively good pop song. Unfortunately it is followed by the unwelcome appearance of Travie McCoy on ‘Yeah Yeah’ and the dirge of ‘Live Tonight’, both songs that make no significant impression on either a first listen or more.

Although the X Factor judge has been derided for not having the strongest voice in the world (or Girls Aloud) she can still sing a good ballad, and on ‘The Flood’ she manages to do just so whilst also stretching the possibilities for using water as a metaphor in the process; “You’re loving me like water / You’re slipping through my fingers / Such a natural disaster love.”

After another unnecessary guest appearance, this time from Dizzee Rascal on ‘Everyone’, Cheryl opens title track ‘Raindrops’ with some truly terrible lyrics; “You were the tree / And I was the apple / That fell to the ground and turned brown” and cannot come back from such an opening – even with it’s impressively repeated use of the word love during the song’s last minute.

Fortunately another good ballad is tucked into slot eleven of the track listing and although it does feature some of the lyrics featured in the second paragraph of this review, it is a very well produced track that Cheryl sings brilliantly on.

It’s a shame that after a year of troubles, Cole has returned to the charts with an album that could have addressed those troubles but instead seemed content to trundle by with vague references to broken hearts and unemotional attempts at love songs.