Ben Harper: Both Sides of the Gun

If you're game enough to do a double album - one loud, one soft - then you'd think you would hit the audience with the rocker first and leave the beautiful stuff for later. The Foo Fighters did it last year with In Your Honour. But not Ben Harper. On his seventh album, first he woos us and then plugs in the electric for dessert.

here is something special and sweet about the first set of songs, whereas the rockier and funkier numbers, despite using an array of interesting instruments, are tiresome and annoyingly preachy. "I believe in a better way," he yells, and the racket is so bad you couldn't care less. The Way You Found Me is an attempt at a leery late-night lounge number - but Harper ain't exactly Tom Waits.

Better is the title track where Harper sounds like a teenage Stevie Wonder, and the sinister string stabs on Black Rain is the "heavy" album highlight. We all know Harper can rock, it's just that nothing here lives up to his best songs like, Faded and Fight For Your Mind.

The more passionate and gentle Harper is best.

Label: Virgin