Back to Bedlam

1	High 4:03
2	You're Beautiful 3:32
3	Wiseman 3:42
4	Goodbye My Lover 4:18
5	Tears and Rain 4:04
6	Out of My Mind 3:32
7	So Long Jimmy 4:24
8	Billy 3:37
9	Cry 4:06
10	No Bravery 4:01

Barnes & Noble

There's always a place for a feisty young Brit with sweet songs, and James Blunt's sound triangulates just about perfectly between Coldplay, David Gray, and Damien Rice. Blunt, 28, comes from a long line of military men and served in Kosovo -- one song here, "No Bravery," directly addresses what he saw there. Becoming a professional musician in 2002, he was quickly snapped up by hitmaker Linda Perry's label and Elton John's management, and it's easy to see why: Long available in the U.K. -- where it knocked Coldplay out of the No. 1 spot -- Back to Bedlam is strikingly mature for a debut. Blunt's voice is smooth but also biting, and veteran producer Tom Rothrock (Beck, Elliott Smith) helps him to work that contrast beautifully across the album, using '70s-era equipment that gives Bedlam a sound that's warm and familiar without being retro. The album is soothing enough to act as background music, but it's also sufficiently barbed to win over fans of more cynical songs. It's got "sensitive" written all over it, and Blunt flips into a falsetto so frequently that it may not suit all tastes, but the future looks bright indeed for this former soldier boy. Jem Aswad

All Music Guide

Soulful British crooner James Blunt's wistful debut infuses the listener -- in order -- with rainy-day hope, the wistful comfort of unattainable love, and finally, world-weary resignation. While his parched and effeminate falsetto recalls Gasoline Alley-era Rod Stewart with a healthy dose of Antony and the Johnsons, it's the late Elliott Smith who casts the largest shadow on Back to Bedlam. Predictable but effective four-chord guitar motifs are the chosen vehicle for the ex-Royal Armed Forces soldier, and when they connect ("Wiseman," "Goodbye My Lover," "You Are Beautiful"), it's like a "Dear John" letter from a lover who you know will remain a close but ultimately guarded friend. Opening track "High" sets a determined midtempo pace that rarely wanes -- it's like an acoustic version of "Drive" by the Cars with a Coldplay chorus. It's a pace that would sink some records, but Bedlam's perfectly rendered, under 40-minute run time ensures that the listener doesn't suffer from a melancholy overdose. Blunt recounts his harrowing experiences as part of the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo on the closer, "No Bravery," and it's a shock to hear all of the romantic lyricism that informed Bedlam up to this point reduced to "Old men kneel and accept their fate/Wives and daughters cut and raped/A generation drenched in hate," but it's damn effective -- as is the majority of this fine debut. Reverend Lee Power