Nick Lachey's private life has been splashed across the front pages of the gossip magazines as his tumultuous marriage to pop starlet Jessica Simpson imploded; from all this turmoil and heartbreak he has fashioned an album of breathtaking averageness. You want juicy tidbits and gut-wrenching melodrama? Look elsewhere.

Lachey's heartbreak may be genuine, and his undying affection for Simpson real, but the former 98 Degrees frontman's smooth vocals can't convey much more than vague yearning and slight moodiness.

Lachey also co-wrote two-thirds of the songs on What's Left of Me, and while his material isn't disastrous, songs like I Can't Hate You Anymore and Outside Looking In feature lyrics and melodies that rarely rise above the workmanlike.

Only two songs -- Shades of Blue and Everywhere But Here -- are even vaguely memorable. Perhaps worse, there's nothing awful enough on the album to give it some camp value. Some chugging power chords do send You're Not Alone a little higher on the silliness scale, and closer Resolution is a bit whinier than decorum requires.

Without much depth, What's Left of Me can only be called shallow.

Track Listing:

1. What's Left Of Me
2. I Can't Hate You Anymore
3. On Your Own
4. Outside Looking In
5. Shades Of Blue
6. Beautiful
7. Everywhere But Here
8. I Do It For You
9. Run To Me
10. Ghosts
11. You're Not Alone
12. Resolution