"This is my show," Sharleen Spiteri trumpets. "My band." Of course, she's playing to the gallery - all night she hams up her role as gamine yet homely sexpot - but it's a telling moment. When Texas rebranded for the White on Blonde album, the other members became simply her backing band. And so they are still, unspectacular to a man.

Texas whip out two of their best songs early: their first hit, I Don't Want a Lover, is muscular and nearly persuasive. Spiteri is a capable vocalist in a Commitments kind of way, but technique and tone alone do not convey emotion, nor do they make a great singer. A few moments of passingly lovely delirium are to be had as Halo takes flight. Then, unfortunately, comes the first - and the worst - of the new songs. Get Down Tonight wants to be Chic, but its plodding percussion, power-chords and awkwardly squelching electronic bass wound it fatally. Its companions are utterly shameless and dead-eyed: transatlantic or euro-pop sung in a American accent. The big ballad, Nevermind, feels like an even wearier version of In a Lifetime, which in turn feels like part two of Texas's career-saving hit. Say what you want about Say What You Want, it has a vapid, enervated elegance.

What is really odd is that the new songs lack even the efficiency of their predecessors. And the remarkable thing about Spiteri is how hard she works for something so pedestrian.

· At Newcastle City Hall (0191-261 2606) tonight. Then touring.