Perhaps the title
Since I Saw You Last is a winking allusion to the long time between
Gary Barlow's solo records: disregarding the 2012 EP
Sing, he's been silent since 1999's
Twelve Months, Eleven Days, choosing to shelve his solo career when
Take That reunited in 2005. At the close of the millennium,
Barlow was pursuing the traditional path of a balladeer, taking his cues from
George Michael in particular and latter-day
Elton John in general. A decade-plus later, he's happy to consider new pop trends only in passing -- "Let Me Go" has a touch of the big folk of
the Lumineers and
Imagine Dragons; there's just a hint of
Coldplay on "God" -- and while away his time making stately, classicist British pop. Here,
the Beatles -- specifically
Paul, but with a bit of
John -- and early
Elton provide the template and, filtered through
Barlow's exacting craft and resolutely middlebrow taste, he winds up with a handsome album that sounds a bit like a good early
Leo Sayer LP. This isn't meant as a dismissal:
Barlow has a knack for mildly ambitious piano ballads that gain strength from their hazily arty design as well as his studied melodicism. This, almost more than
John's 2013
The Diving Board, captures what was good about post-
McCartney pop singer/songwriters in the mid-'70s, when the best songsmiths never let their ambitions get in the way of a good tune. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine