Harry Conick Jr –

• 25th Nov 2009

A promising opening to Harry Connick Jr’s latest delve into the Jazz Fake Book makes great use of his undeniably silky smooth vocal chords. This is good, solid crooning. You’re charmed “all the way” back into a swanky 1960s champagne ridden banquet hall, and so far so good for the backing band, which doesn’t add anything new to the song, but if you wanted ‘new’ and ‘mind-blowing’ you really shouldn’t have bought this album. Connick’s voice is at its grandest and he shows it off to the full with the song’s closing notes; “All the Way” positively bursts out of the speakers (pity those listening through earphones).

Disappointingly, the next couple of songs go about their business pleasantly enough, but they lack the pazazz of the first. Connick’s elegant, refined voice charms you into listening on where a lesser singer might have seen you giving up at this point, but by the end of the third track expect to become strangely fascinated by the shoes of the person opposite you on the tube/that bird that’s just landed on the neighbours fence etc. Whilst Connick does his best he can’t be expected to hold your interest on what are little more than some decent karaoke renditions of Jazz Standards.

“And I Love Her” brings about a much needed change of mood with a sultry Spanish guitar intro lulling you into a gentle sway which calls you away to a moonlit sea-front restaurant where you will be served your favourite wine by a handsome/beautiful waiter/waitress called José/Isabella. Lovely stuff. What a shame this is the only real bit of character you get from Connick throughout the album. “Close to You” really doesn’t cut it; you’ve got to wonder why anyone would ever try and cover Karen Carpenter’s master-class in relaxation without doing something seriously new. Any repetitions are doomed to fail before they even begin and sadly for Connick, that’s exactly what’s happened with this downcast, trodden-on rendition.

And so on and so forth, and Connick’s got a nice voice and all but the backing band (I say with the utmost optimism, it really sounds like a £4.99 backing track from Woolworths) really lets him down hugely. They’re just so lacklustre that it defies belief. By the time “Your Song” rolls around you’re parched of personality to the extent where it seems to almost burst off the CD, when in reality all you have is a slightly swung version of Elton’s classic tour-de-force, lacking in the passion and personal touch which has kept the original alive and kicking for all these years. Nonetheless, it’s something of a wake-up call; at least it’s something different, and at this point anything different is good.

What else is there to say about this album? In a few songs’ time it finishes and that’s that. It’s something you’d feel safe giving your mum to listen to (Christmas hint, anyone?) and she’ll probably be quite chuffed (he is a beefcake, after all) but musically this album is a bit of a sad void. Uninventive at best and just plain boring on a real level, this is not an album you’ll particularly remember or even smile warmly at when you come across it hidden under the bed in a couple of years’ time. I really do hope that this isn’t the last we’ve heard from Harry Connick Jr but next time he’d bloody better put some soul into it; looks can only get you so far, and eventually you need a bit of substance or else I shouldn’t think it’ll be too long before he ends up on ‘All Star Family Fortunes’…