Gentle, nice, polite and laid back are some of the adjectives W & H reviewers, myself included, have used to describe Matt Dibble's music.
The consensus is that his brand of jazzy Radio 2 friendly pop is pleasant on the ear but not something to get very excited about.
Nothing on Around The Corner will change this perspective.
There's something overly naive and simplistic about his song writing that conjures up an airbrushed world where everything is in harmony and dark clouds rarely threaten. There are no mean streets around these corners.
Take Berlin, for instance, which begins with the lines "I met a girl in Berlin, we walked down the street at night". It's not that I expect Mr Dibble to explore the depths of despair like Lou Reed, but a little more acknowledgment of life's harsher realities wouldn't go amiss.
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And even though the final track is promisingly entitled January Blues this turns out to be a manic party tune.
The invitation to "go out exploring" on the title track doesn't sound like the most thrilling date while other bland tracks like Balloons, Ice Cream Van and Fashionably Poor ("living the artist's dream - every night's a party") are enough to make The Carpenters sound positively edgy.
Gentle, nice, polite and laid back, but very dull.
Matt Dibble's website
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