KEY POINTS:
Herald Rating: * *
It's pretty easy to bag ol' Blunty, what with his posh accent, wet ballads and metrosexual image. After the success of debut album, Back to Bedlam, even a relationship with a supermodel couldn't save his name from turning up as Cockney rhyming slang
in an episode of Skins.
But even an open-minded pop fanatic would have a hard time shaking the feeling that Blunt's music has been done before.
His follow-up was apparently inspired by a stint in Ibiza. Thankfully he's resisted the urge to incorporate house music, going instead for a 1970s vibe, particularly on the album's best song, 1973 and the piano-driven Give Me Some Love, which at least has a sense of humour: "Valium said to me, I'll take you seriously, and we'll come back as someone else." Hmm, Elton John perhaps?
Blunt has always been at his best at the rock end of the spectrum, (Wisemen, High) so it's a relief to find he's still capable of it, even on the keys.
But it doesn't take long for the cringe-factor to creep in. One of the Brightest Stars could have been a decent song if ego didn't come into it: "One day they'll make you glooorious, beneath the lights of your deserved fame."
Lyrically, it doesn't get much more original: "Trouble is her only friend and he's back again"; "Mine is not a heart of stone, I am only skin and bone"; not since Nickelback has an artist rhymed "laugh" with "photograph" (Shine On).
Ultimately, it's an album hung together on the worst cliches available to pop music: predictable chords, lazy motifs and melodramatic delivery, especially on those ballads. Same Mistake, with the amusing vocal refrain, "Hello, hello!" sounds like Eric Cartman doing a Pink Floyd cover. It's also, inevitably, the album's lighter-waving answer to You're Beautiful. But I Really Want You takes the cake, with everything from overblown talk of prophets and clerics to whimpering falsetto confessions and a heart-breaking - or should that be window-breaking? - finale.
If Blunty a safe wedding soundtrack doth make, then diehard fans should take the plunge. Everyone else, steer clear.
Label: Warner
Verdict: Second album of gush-pop for the fans only