The opening strains of ‘Ain’t No Reason’ will certainly make you sit up and pay attention on the first listen through – Dennen’s vocals are astonishing as he has a very female sounding voice and singing style, immediately bringing to mind both Billie Holiday and Tracy Chapman. Once you get past the first minute and get used to the voice, what you have is a varied and high quality contemporary singer/songwriter disc.
His songs can lean towards the introspective and occasionally melancholy, but while he does tackle social and political issue in his writing, the lyrics are subtle and smart and it never feels like he preaching.
While the comparison to Holiday and Chapman are easy to make due to his use of phrasing, influences from Dylan are easy to spot in his colourful lyrics and song structures. Even with all the big name comparisons Dennen is very much his own man, and stands up well as an extremely distinct artist with a style all of his own.
Beautiful acoustic songs sit alongside tracks that have a slight African influence (think the rhythms of Paul Simon’s ‘Graceland’) and the overall consistency of the disc is very high.
Dennen is a real individual and his vocals and style certainly separates him from the singer/songwriter pack. ‘So Much More’ is an album with effortless charm, it’s hard not to like the voice and almost impossible not to enjoy the more upbeat songs – a memorable disc for the quality of the writing as well as his distinctive delivery. Very highly recommended.

£13.49