Sweet Baboo is essentially Stephen Black, although he cites a host of colleagues who assisted in creating this second album, following on from 2008’s The Mighty Baboo. Black’s vocals are the strength here, oozing good old English character and, whilst it is easy to draw analogy with Sam Duckworth’s Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, there’s a more dated tinge sounding, dare I say, more like George Formby! Character is the operative word throughout, with most of the numbers bearing a blatant charm and telling simple tales of every day life.

Musically, there is little more than an acoustic backing, which is befitting accompaniment to the vocals. Most of the arrangements are very simple too and the set’s only real downfall is a lack of variety and maybe adventure. It’s Three, Let’s Go is an instrumental but serves only as an interlude and the only time there’s a musical uprising is on closing track Tim’s Song, where the strings lift the song into a choral climax, leaving you in wonderment why a similar approach isn’t taken more often here.

It is difficult to see another setting that would be more suitable to such an affable distinctive vocal style and so the album does serve as a suitable platform for Black’s obvious abilities. At its worst it’s a narrow set of songs and at its best it stands out like a black and white photograph in a sea of colour - with an enigmatic dated feel.

2.5/5

http://www.myspace.com/sweetbabootheband

TC