James Blunt at the St James

James Blunt might have spared us the singalong. Picture / Ollie Dale

After an underwhelming acoustic showcase last year, it seemed hard to believe an English toff named James Blunt would be the next big thing in New Zealand.

Six months and a number one album here later, it's not so hard to fathom. And as the singer-songwriter came barrelling on stage on Monday night - all teeth, bouncy feet and quips about "the great Kiwi sense of humour" - it was clear he'd honed his stagecraft and bucked-up his confidence.

With help from an excellent four-piece band and backdrop of bold imagery, the songs had a firepower they lacked the first time around.

The gig was a reminder to those who know Blunt only for his wet ballads that his debut album Back to Bedlam has many solid, memorable tunes. Songs such as High, So Long Jimmy and Wise Men showed that the falsetto that he's so fond of doesn't need to sound meek - if used sparingly. And he did make a valid point when he joked that the falsetto gets him closer to the girls.

The gig hit its first snag when the band dispersed and Blunt retreated solo to the grand piano to whimper his saccharine hit, Goodbye My Lover. It's not that it's a bad song, despite its funereal connotations, it's just that Blunt infused it with such melodrama and heavy-handed piano that if he's not careful, Southpark's Eric Cartman will be releasing his own version soon. And No Bravery, an ode to Blunt's time as a peacekeeper, was accompanied by an emotionally manipulative backdrop broadcasting images of wartorn Kosovo. A good song should be enough to get a point across.

Thankfully, the band returned to rock things up again with a grunty Slade cover, and for a while it seemed Blunt had found his feet again, belting out the songs with a fervour that was thoroughly engaging. But before you could say "Home James, and don't spare the horses", Blunt had proclaimed it "liberating" to sing along. Sorry, but that doesn't quite gel with the skull-and-crossbones T-shirt.

If Blunt had wanted to end on a positive note, he would have indulged his fans' expectations - and justified the ticket prices - by performing his biggest hit, You're Beautiful. Instead, he left it for the encore, which he'd obviously anticipated, given the images flashing on the backdrop.

He also played the Pixies' Where is My Mind?, a strange choice that showed up the similarities with his own Out of My Mind, performed just moments earlier. That, and a few moments too long on the stage at the end, threatened to ruin what was largely an entertaining gig. Take a leaf from the Kiwis, James - we're a humble bunch.