Undiscovered

With a pleasantly soulful voice that faintly recalls Stevie Wonder, he offers several slices of polite soul-pop that deftly manage to recall the heyday of soul while still managing to sound modern -- a neat balancing trick. However, smooth as Morrison sounds, for much of the album there's a distinct lack of passion in his voice -- and that's a prime ingredient of real soul music.

To be fair, he has an exceptional voice, sweetly melodic at its core but appealingly rough around the edges. Helped by an anonymously competent backing band, Morrison takes us through a selection of songs that favour the slow side of mid-tempo.

Ultimately, Undiscovered sounds like an authentic soul record after being run through a Xerox machine eight or nine times. It’s a pale facsimile, with all of the life and color drained out. It took Stone three albums to find her true voice, let’s see if Morrison gets the chance to develop in the same manner.

If you believe the current waves of Jools Holland and Radio 2-endorsed hype then a) you should be getting very excited about James Morrison and b) Chuck D clearly taught you nothing.