Justin Currie

Scottish band Del Amitri were one of those acts that were both very popular and not so much at different times in their 17-year career. And it wasn’t for any good reason either because they never changed too much during that time, whereas the music scene did. In the five years since the band’s final album, singer Justin Currie has been slowly nurturing his solo career, with a few songs turning up on his MySpace page from time to time. But it’s only with the release of What Is Love For that it’s apparent how well he spent that period. It’s not that the album offers much in the way of surprises because Currie still does what he has always done, which isn’t a bad thing. The 11 songs have a downbeat, world-weary maturity to them that seems like a natural progression. The lyrics, like the sparse arrangements, are economic and get directly to the point. But amidst the melancholy is prettiness, not unlike Travis. Chances are he won’t recapture Del Amitri’s glory days with his solo debut but Currie is still a very capable songwriter who will always find an audience happy to embrace his work.