As anyone who saw his Auckland City Limits set can testify, George Ezra is very, very popular. He regularly sells out tours in his UK homeland and abroad, and his debut album Wanted on Voyage was the UK's third-highest selling of 2014 behind his more famous colleagues Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith. You may not have heard his name, but you've heard five of his songs and somehow know the lyrics to each one.
Staying at Tamara's is Ezra's answer to the dreaded sophomore slump, and it makes the almost brave step of being an unflinchingly sunny, positive record. Unfortunately, where good pop music can use joy as a tool for transcendence, Ezra sounds boxed in by his own optimism. His rousing sense of "come on, guys, the world's not that bad" only lands as a mediocre imperative, falling far from the empowering antidote to our dark times it wishes to be. Opener Pretty Shining People goes as far as its title suggests it's going to go, closing with a weak redundancy: "Don't we all need love? The answer is easy."
Ezra is undoubtedly a talented musician, however, and his affecting baritone is a winning instrument that helps the album hit its marks a number of times. On Saviour, Ezra is matched perfectly by the dreamy vocals of Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit over a country-tinged, shuffling beat. Shotgun saves itself from its clunky opening lyric ("homegrown alligator, see you later") with a hugely catchy chorus, propelled by a surprising bass line that jumps happily out of nowhere. The end result is a pleasant but forgettable 37 minutes of guitar pop that'll likely sell well, but fail to make any kind of lasting cultural impression.
