Ronan Keating: Destination

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * )

Looking increasingly more like a lightly varnished Bryan Adams, Irish pop heart-throb Keating arrives at Destination, his second solo album after his successful but predictably bland post-Boyzone debut. Again, its limited sense of adventure makes fellow boy-band survivor Robbie Williams sound like Radiohead by comparison (and countrypeople the Corrs seem positively dangerous).

But at least it's a consistently lively affair and an improvement on its predecessor. That's care of the sunny pop-rock tunes co-written by Gregg Alexander of the New Radicals - the man behind Mitsubishi's high-rotate jingle.

You can hear his piano-thumping trademark the most strongly on the likes of best tracks Lovin' Each Day, As Much as I Can Give You Girl and opener I Love It When We Do. The many sensitive ballads - including covers of Garth Brooks' If Tomorrow Never Comes and Bob Seger's We've Got Tonight on which he duets with Lulu - show Keating has lost that annoying adenoidal inflection in his singing. And just in time for his upcoming Auckland concert.

Label: Polydor