Perhaps the title
Since I Saw You Last
is a winking allusion to the long time between
Gary Barlow
's solo records: disregarding the 2012 EP
Sing
, he's been silent since 1999's
Twelve Months, Eleven Days
, choosing to shelve his solo career when
Take That
reunited in 2005. At the close of the millennium,
Barlow
was pursuing the traditional path of a balladeer, taking his cues from
George Michael
in particular and latter-day
Elton John
in general. A decade-plus later, he's happy to consider new pop trends only in passing -- "Let Me Go" has a touch of the big folk of
the Lumineers
and
Imagine Dragons
; there's just a hint of
Coldplay
on "God" -- and while away his time making stately, classicist British pop. Here,
the Beatles
-- specifically
Paul
, but with a bit of
John
-- and early
Elton
provide the template and, filtered through
's exacting craft and resolutely middlebrow taste, he winds up with a handsome album that sounds a bit like a good early
Leo Sayer
LP. This isn't meant as a dismissal:
has a knack for mildly ambitious piano ballads that gain strength from their hazily arty design as well as his studied melodicism. This, almost more than
's 2013
The Diving Board
, captures what was good about post-
McCartney
pop singer/songwriters in the mid-'70s, when the best songsmiths never let their ambitions get in the way of a good tune. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine