Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Rob's decision to travel up to Glasgow's Foundry Music Lab and work with Wet Wet Wet guitar maestro Graeme Duffin on his new album was a smart one. Suddenly Rob's insightful, melodically warm observations on life and the cosmos have sufficient punch and power to attract radio play that the previous releases from the Midlands singer/songwriter have lacked. Now don't get me wrong. Duffin is too wise an old head to drench Rob's gutsy compositions in multi-track over-production. So here there is a nice organic vibe to the whole proceedings. But the addition of a tasty Hammond on the opener "Dungeon Ghyl" and a delicious bass riff on "Blue Jeans" set up Rob's neat, incisive compositions nicely while his rough textured voice has never sounded better. My faves are the lilting mid-tempo "Christian's Brother" while his subdued acoustic rendition of "Carry Me Home", the After The Fire oldie, shows what a great song it is. Can't wait to hear Rob sing it in concert when he fronts ATF.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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