MR HUDSON: Straight No Chaser

Oct 18 2009 by Daniel Smith, Sunday Mercury

MR HUDSON

Straight No Chaser

(Mercury)

wGOT to be honest but I still can’t see what all the fuss is about. Sure, Brummie Ben Hudson combines chart pop hooks with the R&B flavours of mentor Kanye West, but it’s a bland affair. Single Supernova shot to No 2 largely, one suspects, because of West’s guest turn, and remains the best track here. Of the rest, follow-up White Lies is anguished 1980s nostalgia, the vocoder vocal title track rides a hip-hop beat, and Anyone But Him boasts a cameo from Kid Cudi. Hudson says he wanted his sophomore set to have arena-filling appeal. Maybe next time. PC