There's a ghost hanging over this album. But it's not Ronan Keating's and, unfortunately, it's not Mikey Graham's either. It is actually the spirit of one Robert Williams.
Last year's single 'If You'd Only' begins proceedings, kicking off with a guitar line and groove reminiscent of Michael Jackson's 'Black And White'. Vocally, though, Mikey has obviously decided that borrowing liberally from Stoke-on-Trent's favourite son is the way forward.
In fairness, 'If It's War' features a nice duet between Mikey and Mandy Barnett. From then on, things get worse. It's not that it's bad - it's perfectly serviceable AOR fodder - but it's just so bland.
The problem with this album and the reason why it will follow 'You Could Be My Everything' into the nation's bargain bins is its complete lack of personality. Graham never stamps his authority at all, he's just a faceless presence on top of the 'rootsy' instrumentation and soul-searching ballads.
And so 'The Bitter End' is flat when it wants to be passionate, the aforementioned recent flop single tries to be a soaring gospel song akin to something out of a Lloyd-Webber musical but never reaches any heights, while 'Skinny Dippin' attempts to come on all funky and 'Did It Again' rises to what everything involved must have thought was an epic crescendo. It isn't.
Wherefore now for Mikey? On this evidence, he'll be following the likes of Andrew Ridgeley, the Goss brothers and Howard Donald into the annals of boy band members whose fans grew up and moved on. He may have Robbie's vocal technique down pat but he hasn't got the personality to invests his songs with an attention-grabbing quality. Nice bloke, dull album.
