With 100 million album sales under his belt, the musician, producer, etc, tries his hand at Americana... with mixed, albeit highly polished, results.
Eurythmics co-founder Stewart looked to American rock, country and blues for this latest venture.
Recorded over five days and nights in John McBride’s Blackbird Studio last July, Diaries opens with So Long Ago, a bluesy, woozy and meaty chunk of slick Americana name-checking everyone from the Stones to Mississipi John Hurt.
It neatly signposts what follows; a well-put-together, celebrity-sprinkled plod-fest that’s frustratingly light on conviction.
Worth The Waiting For features surprisingly direct lyrics for a track co-written by Bob Dylan, and heads inexorably towards the fist-bitingly twee.
All Messed Up’s duet with Martina McBride has steel guitar, gentle swaying and ooh-oohs all neatly lined up, but lacks emotional spark.
That Diaries is referred to as Stewart’s latest ‘project’ reveals perhaps this album’s biggest hurdle of all.
3 stars
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