A veteran singer, who's spent years in the wilderness, joins up with a younger, well respected producer, and records an album of stripped-down cover versions. So far, so Cash. Yet while the American Recordings series were compelling and often uncomfortable listens, Made In Sheffield never strays from the middle of the road.

To be fair to Christie and Richard Hawley, his partner here, it was never their intention to make something edgy and hip. There's obviously been inordinate amounts of love and affection lavished on the record, and if it rescues Christie from the novelty hell which Peter Kay and his treadmill plunged him into, then so much the better.

The idea behind Made In Sheffield was simple - Christie and his fellow South Yorkshireman Hawley chose various songs all linked by one factor: the writers of the songs all came from Sheffield. Thus, we have selections from Alex Turner, Jarvis Cocker and Hawley himself, as well as several less well-known names such as Martin Bragger and Mark Sheridan.

Which is all well and good, but the treatment that each song receives here renders them slightly bland, in truth. Indeed, if someone had never been to Sheffield, they'd come away convinced that the Steel City is full of frustrated songwriters who still mourn the disappearance of Sing Something Simple from Radio 2's airwaves.

However, we should be thankful that Christie has not gone down the Paul Anka route and tried comedy versions of Being Boiled, for example. Each song here could easily nestle in Christie's back catalogue, from the string-soaked Arctics cover The Only Ones Who Know, right through to the, erm, string-soaked rendition of Hawley's own Coles Corner.

Whether you'll enjoy it depends on how much of Christie's rather mannered delivery you can take. His tendency to over-enunicate every single word and sing in rather a melodramatic manner does prove wearying after a while ("I'm GOING downtown where's there's MUSIC" for example). Although the lost Pulp classic Born To Cry does sound wonderful, even reminiscent of Roy Orbison's later works, tracks like All I Ever Care About and Paradise Square work less well, coming off as just horribly twee.

Made In Sheffield is not without its great moments though - Christie's version of The Human League's Louise is a real tear-jerker, with his voice adding suitable gravitas to the poignant tale of two old lovers meeting years after their break-up. He also thankfully reclaims the song after Robbie Williams' horrific attack on it on the notorious Rudebox album.

There's also the fabulous Parisian swing of How Can I Entertain, and Danger Is A Woman In Love, which despite being slightly overblown, sounds like the best Bond theme never written. Take that Jack White and Alicia Keyes...

While this will no doubt sell like hotcakes to Christie's core audience, it's unlikely to reinvent him as a new musical icon of cool, a la Cash. While it would have been interesting to hear him tackle some of Sheffield's other songwriters (both You're Gorgeous by Baby Bird and ABC's The Look Of Love are surely tailor-made for Christie?),he's in his comfort zone here, which is all you can ask for at the age of 65.

Best of all, it manages to erase all memories of celebrities doing comedy dancing to Is This The Way To Amarillo. This is a quiet, dignified record which, while maybe not being the most exciting album you'll hear all year, would make a cracking Christmas present for the more mature relative in your life.

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end of year feature musicOMH's 50 Best Albums Of 2009 From the nearly 700 albums we reviewed this year, which did our writers love the most? Introduction 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 20-11 | 10-4 | 1-3