Music

James Arthur, O2 Academy, Glasgow

Jonathan Geddes

Two stars

If the question ‘how bad is British pop music at this moment in time’ is asked, then James Arthur covering Clean Bandit’s irritating chart-topper Rockabye at this gig would provide a succinct answer. It was the bland singing the bland, yet Arthur on the whole was less easy to dismiss than that one ill-judged cover.

His pop resurrection, after X Factor, being dropped by his record label and a notorious row over homophobic language, has been unlikely, and when he mentioned that he came close to quitting music you suspect it was truthful. Yet the past year has brought a No 1 single and album, and the Academy was sold out, although the amount of chatter and noise that greeted some songs suggested that X Factor appeal, where the thrill is to see someone off TV rather than actually hear them, has not left.  There seemed rather more craving for syrupy set-closer Say You Won’t Let Go or his dreary cover of Impossible than the blunt material detailing his mental health issues.

Tracks like Prisoner (enjoyably sturdy pop-rock) or Sober (a funk number on which Arthur played ladies man to the crowd) brought a sincerity that many talent show winners lack, something also true of a full throated I Am and the acoustic Safe Inside, songs that made good use of his roughhewn vocal.

However that voice was distinctive but not always successful.  On the generic rock of Recovery or Phoenix’s watered down pop, it struck the gasping tone of a drama student attempting a death scene. Coupled with the unadventurous nature of the music it ensured a set flavoured with honesty but lacking in creative punch, albeit with flashes of legitimate talent.