from the sky down to the sea

I know it's hardly a brand new release, but someone bought it me recently and so I thought I'd give it a mention.

On the face of it, James Morrison is simply the latest in a new brigade of shaggy-haired British singer songwriters following the likes of James Blunt and Paolo Nutini. The reality is that James Morrison is simply the latest in a new brigade of shaggy-haired British singer songwriters following the likes of James Blunt and Paolo Nutini.

I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. It isn't particularly challenging and I'm not sure it's lyrical content is going to call anyone to arms in protest. It's jangly, spangly background music littered with three or four catchy singles.

Although, there is something appealing about it. His voice is great and the album chugs along pretty merrily. The hit singles "You Give Me Something" and "Wonderful World" are excellent and it's hard to find anything to dislike, other than, I suppose, it's lack of originality. That doesn't mean to say it is derivative (it isn't), but it doesn't do a great deal to differentiate itself from any number of similar musicians out there (and I'd include people like KT Tunstall in that group).

It has sold in its truckloads, though (it was one of the UK's top 10 selling albums in 2006) and it's not difficult to see why.

Interestingly, the singles and some of the rest of the album was co-written by Eg White, a man not only responsible for Will Young's "Leave Right Now", Natalie Imbruglia's "Shiver", Joss Stone's "You Had Me" and "Call My Name" by Charlotte Church but also remembered for being in the original line-up of Brother Beyond. There you go.