You may recognize China as the voice of Pink Martini. If so, you’ll also recognize Hey Eugene, which Forbes wrote for the band, and sadly for her first breakaway effort, it is the standout track!

On first listen I thought I had picked up a Sheryl Crow CD by mistake… So, it was no surprise when I discovered Crow’s producer Gregg Williams is behind this album. ’78 is largely ignorable aside from some really annoying attempts to incorporate electronic sounds with the aid of a drum machine, like in Time on My Hands, and always agonizingly banal lyrics. (Yes; day, away and say all rhyme.)

This said, half way through the album there is sweet relief to be found in title track’78. Straying away from the ‘pop by numbers’ formula China obviously loves, it’s a jazzier piece that glimmers with a taste of what this album could have been.

China’s supposedly ‘true and personal’ work is not convincing and the morsels of good musicianship aren’t enough to save this album. Cut China out of the equation and it might have been a listenable instrumental…. Might have…