For someone who has already played the Royal Albert Hall (as support to Alison Moyet) and recorded a Radio 2 session for Dermot O'Leary, Alex Cornish doesn't seem to get the column inches devoted to his peers.

Could that be because the singer-songwriter from Dunbar is not on a major label or because his writing style is consciously mainstream? So let's put it down in black and white: Alex Cornish writes better lyrics and better melodies than many of the household names who headline our biggest concert halls. I'd liked but not loved his past albums, thinking that for all the tuneful verses, soaring choruses and exhilarating arrangements, he'd never caught my ear with a disruptive time signature or an unexpected change of key. And while it's still true that Beyond The Serenade's greatest strengths lie in its broad commercial appeal, I'm now drawn to the chamber group minimalism that opens Work The Fields, the jazz-inflected trumpet solo on Downstream, the way I'll Never Learn strays off a straight harmonic path.

Alan Morrison