So, after what feels like many years of Carola showing us how much she loves Elvis Presley and Barbra Streisand, she’s finally released the album – Elvis, Barbra & Jag. Frankly, Schlagerfiasko is glad she’s getting it out of her system, and hopes that she’ll move on to what she does best – power ballads and audacious vocal floorfillers (for the gays and gals, at least). But is the album worth getting?

Well, yes and no. I couldn’t understand before how the sounds of Elvis and Barbra could form any coherent connection on a record, and listening to the 12 tracks together, I still feel the same way. It’s clear that this is a deeply personal project for Carola, and she’s spoken about how her parents both loved these singers, which is absolutely wonderful. Carola’s fans will lap this up like everything else she does, but I’m not sure it’s ever going to reach the ecstatic heights of Från nu till evighet.

And that is something that Carola seems to want. She rejected her latest styling ideas because they reminded her too much of her blue outfit for Evighet, so now she’s gone semi-goth – all black and raven feathered, like the daughter of Shirley Bassey and Ozzy Osbourne.

Of course, this doesn’t reflect the music in any way. Well, maybe the Bassey bit. But that’s never a bad thing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Carola shines on the Streisand tracks, wisely Carola-ing them up rather than trying to be Barbra (although if you haven’t seen Carola’s Yentl routine, you need to click underneath immediately, it really is the highlight you never knew about).

After the perfectly enjoyable openers of Suspicious Minds and In The Ghetto, Carola moves onto Enough Is Enough (No More Tears). This was originally a disco duet for Barbra with Donna Summer, but Carola needs no one else to make this amazing. She wisely leaves the arrangement more or less intact, and it’s fabulous. The Carola disco covers album is long overdue, and she needs to sort it out.

Woman In Love is another Barbra number that is perfect for Carola’s voice. I’m not sure whether it’s my own ambivalence to Elvis’ work that make me favour the Barbra songs, but it could also be that those songs were written for a woman (this one by Carola’s pals, the Bee Gees, no less), and are a better fit.

Carola closes the album not with a bang, but with The Way We Were. For an album obviously created for her parents, this is an apt conclusion. I really hope that, following the tour, this closes the chapter and we can get back on the dancefloor again. Please.

Elvis, Barbra & Jag is available everywhere now.