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Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce Will Richards, the latest in a long line of singer-songwriters to emerge on these shores in the past few years. And the man has done it all by himself - no big label backing here, just one multi-instrumentalist and his own record label.
Recorded in Richards' hometown of Wakefield, Ready To Talk Now has a bold title. This is an artist with something to say it is proclaiming, a fact confirmed by the cover art image of Richards holding a signboard with the album title on � la Bob Dylan in that Subterranean Homesick Blues video.
So can Richards live up to his own hype? Opening track Be A Better Man features some pleasant tinkling piano to spice up the mid-tempo pop rock arrangement, while the upbeat nature of the lyrics is in keeping with the generally positive mood of the album.
The next two tracks are the best on the album. Travel Sick boasts a power pop thwack that gradually creeps up on the listener, while Ready To Talk Now introduces some swirling electronics to help create a suitably urgent atmosphere.
The rest of the album struggles to live up to those two tracks, although that is not to say that Richards' melodic touch and direct lyrical style desert him. It's that in a crowded marketplace a singer-songwriter needs something special, and he is maybe just a little too pleasant.
Over Him is a case in point. The woolly hat of Damon Gough aka Badly Drawn Boy is stamped all over this inoffensive little ditty, and we all now how BDB has veered alarmingly off the commercial radar off late.
Richards throws a lot of musical styles into the mix on the remaining tracks, presumably in an effort to prove his versatility, but the end result is a little too 'magpie' for these ears.
Good As Gold boasts a big chorus to back up the singer's plea not 'to sell your soul', but the track jumps about all over the place and loses focus towards the end.
The gospel shuffle I Didn't Want To Kill Them finds Richards trying on another vocal style for effect, sounding disconcertingly like late 60s Cat Stevens in the process.
Things fall apart alarmingly on Sweet & Lonely Lullabies, with wah-wah guitars and sweeping keyboards flooding into what is really just a basic four square pop song, before it all goes a bit Freebird at the end.
Richards carries on down the funk route on The Colour Of Money, another largely inconsequential track, before reverting to acoustic balladeer mode on the closing She's In Love With Me.
Sometimes, the anything goes approach to music that is fashionable these days just works against the natural instincts of an artist. All too often the listener is left wishing for some good old-fashioned record company interference to allow Richards' indubitable talent to shine through the morass of wildly different musical styles that bog down this album.
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