Will Young

85% Proof

(Island)

Will Young has kept himself busy since reclaiming the No 1 album slot four years ago with Echoes. He's switched labels, won praise for his turn as The Emcee in Cabaret in the West End, penned some politicised blogs for the Huffington Post, taken up martial arts and undergone somatic experience therapy. He's also, some might say, lost ground to Olly Murs and Sam Smith.

New album 85% Proof goes a fair bit of the way to claiming that ground back. His lyrics are still too woolly to deserve the respect afforded his online musings (Brave Man suffers from too much self-motivation manual guff about being "not afraid to topple, not afraid to fall") and you've got to worry about the personal life of someone who goes from the funky thump of I Just Want A Lover to the piano isolation of I Don't Need A Lover from one album to the next.

But there are times here (notably when he avoids that reedy falsetto) when his voice is on top form. The Northern Soul stylings of Love Revolution take Smith on at his own nostalgic game, there are simple old-school pop pleasures to be had in Joy (its escalating verse as catchy as its arena-sized chorus) and there's a dreamy quality to Gold that doesn't allow the strings to take over.

Let's imagine, then, that the image on the album cover is Young coming off the ropes, ready for the next round.

Alan Morrison