Reckless Review

This is the record that made the criticism unanswerable. Fifteen tracks of the same tempo, the same key and the same subject, delivered in a voice with no dynamic range at all, and the writing has degraded from thin to genuinely inert, whole verses assembled from brand names and the words rich, cold and diamonds. Champion has a decent beat wasted. Hit is fine.

Wanted You brings a guest who makes the difference in performance embarrassingly clear. Freshman List is where he complains about not being taken seriously, which is a bold move at this stage. There is nothing actively offensive about any of it, and that is part of the problem, because there is nothing at all. The production keeps him afloat for stretches. Across forty eight minutes the effect is a beautifully mixed void, and it went gold, which explains the next three albums.