Turn On The Lights

Daniel Powter appears destined forever to be one of pop's one-hit wonders.

Six years ago, the Canadian singer-songwriter's overwrought soft-rock ballad, Bad Day, went to number one in America and spent more than six months in the chart here. It soundtracked Coke ads, dominated American Idol and rang around sports stadiums.

Since then, Powter has plodded on, releasing a steady stream of James Blunt-like piano-led mid-pace MOR ballads, all of which have received a reception from the general public that can only be described as deafening indifference. It's hard to imagine Turn On The Lights breaking this sequence.

It's not a dreadful album, it's just spectacularly ordinary. Powter knows his way around a radio-friendly tune and has seemingly limitless reservoirs of angst, but well-crafted, tasteful tracks like Best Of Me and Come Back Home delete themselves from your memory even before they have finished playing.

Recent single Cupid has a valiant stab at recreating Bad Day's jaunty, stoical optimism but lacks that crucial sliver of alchemy that transforms a standard-issue soft-rock ballad into a universal earworm. Oh, well. Guess Mr Powter will just have to go on counting the royalties from Bad Day…

Album review by Ian Gittins