Album Reviews

Album reviews: James Blunt’s latest is as cheerfully unmemorable as you’d imagine

Elsewhere, ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr releases an excellent best-of collection; and a rocking, rollicking pub band may be best left in the pub

James Blunt: his new album is bland and unadventurous, but let’s not forget that he appeals to a mass of people who genuinely connect with his lyrics

James Blunt, Who We Used to Be (Atlantic)

It has become par for the course that some music acts receive an inordinate amount of flak for what some people regard as their generic, bland, unadventurous, and homogenous music. Despite huge commercial success, the likes of Ed Sheeran and James Blunt have over the years become poster boys for such targeting. Whereas some musicians react to criticism with slabs of hubris, Blunt deflects negative commentary by ...