Roland Gift: Roland Gift

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * )

"The unmistakable voice of the Fine Young Cannibals" says the sticker in case you can't place the distinctive face of Gift, the soul-voiced, sometime actor and Coromandel resident who has finally delivered a solo album a decade-plus after his band's short-lived heyday.

That unmistakable voice of FYC for the most part also gets the unmistakable sound, too, care of the involvement of the band's one-time producer David Z, late of Prince's Paisley Park. Which might not have been the problem had the songs come with the old urgency and hooks.

That's apart from Wish You Were Here where Gift swings from falsetto verses to its anthem of a chorus; the opener Tell Me You Want Me Back is a twitchy cousin to She Drives Me Crazy; while It's Only Money with its big strings and electro-throb backing has a chance of getting Gift noticed by the Robbie constituency.

Otherwise, too many of the 11 leave too little impression and Mr Unmistakable becomes Mr Unremarkable.

Label: MCA