This album is something of a departure for Scots DJ
Joseph Malik, who made his name on the British and Continental club scenes during the 1990s. Here he's in full-on soul mode, singing confessional lyrics in an acceptable, if not exceptional, falsetto voice and accompanied by guitarist and producer David Donnelly and a handful of session hands. The album starts out rather weakly, with the self-indulgent and faintly embarrassing "Melodies" and "Soul Blues," but picks up nicely with a
Bill Withers cover and gets really interesting on track five, the strangely minimalist -- almost
Reichian -- "Ibotribe." The music is mostly a combination of acoustic guitar, samples, and electronic percussion that could have been compelling, but is generally too sparse and dry to hold one's interest. The album's nadir is the really awful "Evil Things," on which that mediocre falsetto is multi-tracked over an acoustic guitar chord progression (and little else). Credit Donnelly with sharp, nicely balanced sound, but it's the most distinguished thing on an album that is far too lacking in revelatory moments. ~ Rick Anderson