This was a strange one. The cover suggested some long-lost 1950s American rock and roll, my kind of music right now. A quick read of Wikipedia reveals that the album was actually released in 1998, and don’t be fooled by the album cover art; this is not rock and roll but blues.
So far so good. I’m always a bit of a sucker for the blues. Plus there was some added soul and funk promises within the wiki paragraph that I skim read.
I fired up the album on Spotify. Boy, he can sing, and yes he was a boy when he recorded this, being only 17 years of age. It’s not quite your typical white blue eyed soul but he has a bloody good pair of lungs on him.
I’m all for encouraging optimism and experimentation amongst young talent but it did feel a little bit overplayed and bloated. It sounds as though he’s singing just for the sake of it. The blues are more of an annoying US radio style that has ambitions to stray into horrid rock territory.
⭐ ⭐