Bar band jazz-pop smooth as a pina colada most of the time, depending on how much Reynolds is compelled to stick with Seal’s vocal sound. When he flexes his glottis he gets a Joe Cocker thing going on (the feisty, Chicago-esque horn section of “Sherry Man” is one instance in which he’s driven to that extreme), and there’s even a Pete Townsend reediness that bastes “Sweet Mother” in liberal amounts of AOR gloss. Songwriting-wise, the overriding quality is filler-level that wouldn’t dream of challenging “Kiss From a Rose” for chick-flick supremacy, but it’s early in the game and the engineering is major league. It should be noted that PR’s main thrust has been to make it widely known that this album is wired with code intended to track the travels of the files should you decide to upload it anyplace, not – they’re quick to point out – as a means to set you up for RIAA lawsuits but just for fun, meaning they’re looking for new promotional avenues, hence the tunes are essentially shareware. Order from Amazon.com
