Rating: NNNN
|
|
Talk about the ultimate sensitive alpha male. James Blunt is a former soldier in the British army turned singer/songwriter, and he’s bloody gorgeous. Back To Bedlam isn’t exactly a party in a box. Blunt feels “hollow” and has “seen death” and “seen pain,” and he’s even lived to “see a lover’s final breath.” You expect that when the first person someone thanks on his liner notes is Linda Perry – a tidbit that almost put me off listening to this record altogether, but I’m glad I did. Blunt’s falsetto moan can be grating, and much of this sounds the same, but his acoustic slow-to-mid-tempo tunes are lush, sensitive and oddly compelling, except for So Long Jimmy, which might be a tribute or really belated farewell to Jimi Hendrix with a grievous spelling error.
