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Timbaland Presents: Shock Value

One supposes the shock proposed by the title of super producer Timbaland's first solo album in four years is a guest list that tramples all boundaries in popular music. Where else can you hear, gathered under one cover, Sweden's garage-rocking Hives; hip-pop titans 50 Cent and Missy Elliot; Joy Division clones She Wants Revenge; and Sir Elton John, to boot?

Yet while that collection of talent confirms that Timbaland's innovations are no longer an exclusively urban concern, the real shock of the disc is the hit-or-miss results. Why invite John to play piano on 2 Man Show, a predictable piece of mid-tempo R&B? Why waste the Hives on an OutKast-style throwaway like Throw It on Me, which doesn't even allow them to cut loose?

In the end, the best tracks are those that hew closest to the sounds on which Timbaland made his name: Give It to Me, a buzzing, club-happy cousin to Nelly Furtado's Promiscuous, or Bounce, a tacky revamp of Tim's minimalistic work with Justin Timberlake. The unfortunate thing is that Timbaland has already made a case for himself as a genre-busting genius on albums - Bubba Sparxxx's down-home Deliverance is just one example - much stronger than this one.

Though it's hard to see The Best Damn Thing furthering Lavigne's aims of ultimately becoming a serious singer-songwriter, for now it's simply a case - as her currently dyed hair suggests - of blondes having just that bit more fun.