In accordance with the title of his fifth album, Jack Savoretti's latest collection is about the "stuff that keeps you up at night". In reality, Sleep No More is no more hard-hitting than a bag of feathers across the head, but there is plenty to like amidst the Londoner's smouldering pop-rock balladry.
Deep Waters and Helpless find a nimble pace that suits Savoretti's throaty warble, while the sombre Lullaby Loving and the eerie whistle of the title track adds a welcome sense of foreboding that tempers the over-earnest schmaltz of songs like Tight Rope and Troubled Souls ("Only love can stop the war/We don't wanna fight no more").
It’s a mixed bag, but when the lyrical platitudes are neatly sidestepped, Savoretti manages to keep the listener awake rather than comatose.
