If the gossip mags and red tops are to be believed, it's been a busy summer for James Blunt. Cosying up to a variety of women on an assortment of beaches can take it out of a guy - and it seems Blunt might be feeling the effects with the world weary 1973, first taster for a new album for the singer.
Blunt, it's fair to say, inspires a love or hate reaction. For this listener at the moment I'm afraid it's the latter. There remains something extremely smarmy about his vocal delivery, and it feels like he's been on the helium again as he mulls over the fact that Simona's getting older. "Wish I was sober so I could see clearly now the rain has gone" he sings. Something we don't know perhaps?
The inoffensive if rather lumpen backing track swells with a Hammond organ as he muses further, leading onward to a chorus that, for all we try to deny it, catches on rather too easily. "And as time goes by I will always be in a club with you in 1973, singing here we go again". Well perhaps someone should take him back there sharpish, before the new album arrives and we have to hear more.
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