New Zealand native Bic Runga's latest album took about three years to complete. Beautiful Collision, the follow-up to her 1997 debut, Drive, is definitely a collision of songs, but it is far from beautiful - if you try and listen to it the whole way through.

Song by song it works, but fuse them together and you have something that will put you to sleep easier than counting sheep or something that will merely fade away into the background while life goes on.

She was in no hurry to complete the album, which gave her time to experiment with piano, drums and guitar. Her musical influences Neil Young, Ella Fitzgerald, Yoko Ono, Billie Holiday and the Mamas & the Papas, help give the album a folk-pop feel. She's happier than Tori Amos, and softer than Bjork. The songs are all very slow and kind of quiet, with the exception of "Election Night," which speeds up with the aid of some toe-tapping drum beats.

In the first "American Pie" movie, the morning after prom night the camera shoots everyone was cuddling with their - um, fellow de-virginizers - while Runga's "Sway" was playing. It's a beautiful, romantic song, and the majority of the songs on Beautiful Collision seem to have remnants from "Sway."

It's very predictable, too. When you listen to the album for the first time, you won't know the words to the songs, but you will certainly be able to hum along to the repetitive melodies.

Runga does have a beautiful, soothing voice working in her favor; she just needs to add a little variety and a little pep to make the album bearable to listen to in its entirety.