Hawksley Workman

From the first strum, Between The Beautifuls firmly straddles the middle of the road. Workman, once a beautifully quirky tunesmith and producer capable of coaxing many an artists’ best work, has been digging his heels ever deeper into this bland putty of mediocrity since Lover/Fighter’s sharp creative downturn. "Alone Here” attempts to inject some playfulness with a meagre synth trill in the verse, but the fact that such trite ear candy sticks out is harsh evidence of the song’s dull construction. Hawksley appears to be so devoid of originality that he embarrassingly rips off the verse of Radiohead’s "Creep” with "It’s Not Me” before furthering his sickening decent into nauseatingly saccharine pop rock homogenisation with each subsequent track on this tasteless turkey. If there were more moments like the noisy groove-out in the later half of "Prettier Face,” BTB might have a shelf life longer than a couple months in coffee shop chain stores.