Music review: Passenger, Runaway

Michael David Rosenberg is Passenger.

Since his band dissolved in 2009, Michael David Rosenberg has continued with their name for his solo career.

In Runaway we're checking out his ninth solo record, and it's a cracker.

Rosenberg/Passenger has a straightforward and evocative style, crafting songs with integrity and appeal.

His 2014 hit Let Her Go propelled him to the big league, earning him chart success internationally and a coveted Novello Award, as the most played British song of the year.

On the strength of Runaway's cachet of honest, personal and highly musical songs, get ready for Passenger's sound to be wall to wall on pop radio this summer.

While it's his unique voice that makes the first impression, songs like Why Can't I Change, On Hell or Highwater, To Be Free, and especially the title track Runaway, expose a depth and sincerity, supported by faultless production, and with the judicious use of strings and piano.

This is a deceptively simple album which reveals its layers with each playing.

Passenger's Runaway is a keeper, for sure.