James Morrison – One Life

James Morrison’s The Awakening, released towards the tail end of last year, felt like a pale shadow of his former self and the general consensus amongst the reviews was that it was an extremely poor effort. The Independent blasted it with a paltry 1-star. Even the shoehorned-in ‘let’s get together with the star of the year’ collab with Jessie J couldn’t redeem the LP.

It’s a pity, because new single One Life is actually half decent. Sure, it’s no masterpiece, and neither is it a return to the big, powerful balladry Morrison made his early crust on - but it shows he’s still capable of penning a strong chorus. Soulful, stoic, One Life kindles that little glimmer of hope that there’s still another great album tucked away there somewhere – it’s just not ready to unveil itself quite yet.

One Life is released on the 26^th March.

James Morrison - Slave To The Music

Did we see this one coming? James Morrison doing something mildly interesting musically! Previous single I Won't Let You Go was so by-the-number Morrison that while, in itself, it represented a nice enough track, you couldn't help but feel it was what we've already heard so many times before.

Slave To The Music is something of a departure then, twisting James' vocals around a staccato bass line and bluesy feel reminiscent of... yes, you guessed it, slave chants.

This semi-engaging premise soon gives way to business as usual for James though - his soulful voice is in its element here but it's as if someone has painted a big old sticker of 'Average' all over the song. As the production builds and builds, all that soul is stripped out of it and it morphs into the amorphous entity that is so much of James' previous recording output.

The prospects for something exciting are here - a seam of gold gleaming in the mud - but they remain small, uncapitalised upon.

Slave To The Music is released on the 26th February.

Kevin Rutkiewicz - Time On Tick

Recently it seems to be the ladies doing all the dominating of the charts these days, the male singer-songwriters taking a bit of a backstep compared to three or four years ago. But perhaps Kevin Rutkiewicz can even up the scales again with his new single Time On Tick. Hailing from Glasgow, Kevin's Scottish lilt and gentle acoustic melodies will draw obvious comparisons with Paolo Nutini, and it's a fair shout. To a degree anyway, since Paolo's fairly straight debut These Streets, he went on to delve down a fair more quirky, experimental avenue on his second LP Sunny Side Up.

Kevin's single is firmly in the camp of the former album; a big, strong, easy-on-the-ears slice of gentle acoustic balladry that'd give James Morrison a run for his money. The song slowly builds up to an emotional crescendo, piano chords driving away with the guitar to provide a hefty foundation for Kevin's soulful vocals. Having played professional football for twelve years for Aberdeen and Dunfermline, he knows a thing or two about dedication and application of talent - and now having turned those skills to music, Time On Tick represents a highly pleasing listen.

Time On Tick is released on the 6th June.