Words by:
Dan Bull

With an eruption of red hair and an undeniable knack for mastering smooth songwriting that’s delivered with an impressive range of vocals, the comparisons between Daley and Mick Hucknall aren’t too ridiculous. With the release of his debut album, Days & Nights (following a number of EPs, each featuring some of the tracks here), it would appear that, if anything, it’s Hucknall who might be slightly put out by the likeness. For, while Hucknall has been able to master a variety of tempos, Daley’s debut falls rather flat. If it was a ride at the fairground that Simply Red once sung about, it wouldn’t be one for the thrill seekers.

Time Travel opens the ‘collection of previous collections’, but is one of the new tracks, and one of the more impressive. With synths and sounds in the key of James Blake, it begins as a simple stack of layered-vocals and juddering drums, before picking up after the chorus for something more upbeat. It’s not quite a plutonium-powered DeLorean, but it’s the most powerful moment until the time-travel towards the end of the album, where the title-track offers a final stab at upbeat; more pop than Blake but more laidback than the Timberlake moments of Pass It On, and tainted with the predictably poor lyrics throughout (“try to revive my smile”).

Between these bookends are tracks that switch between a poor man’s John Newman and an Emeli Sande that you won’t want to read all about. Second single Broken is almost a tribute to Sande’s debut Heaven, following a journey from stark strings to a simple, powerful chorus before the drums kick in to carry the rest of the track, whilst Love Somebody is similar to her slower, piano-lead efforts. It’s one of many moments that argue the point old people make: “you can’t understand what they’re saying”.

With Daley, every expected rhyme and cringe-inducing wordplay is apparent for all to hear. “Turn home alone, put on a sad song.” You could even guess the lines before they’re sung!

Be (“Pillow to pillow, back to back… waiting for eyes to meet”) offers music for the bedroom, but more specifically, music to fall asleep to, whilst Love And Affection offers decent pop musically, with nauseating slop lyrically, “Thank you, you took me dancing across the floor, cheek to cheek… When I love I can really dance”.

There are moments of hope, however, with Blame The World offering more classic instrumentation to make up its loops, creating what could be a John Newman ballad, but without the gritty vocal. Pharrell collaborates on Look Up, almost a modern day take on Bill Withers’ Lovely Day, with Nile Rodger’s funk-guitar still clearly on his mind inbetween strings and sample. Whilst it’s a hazy highlight here, you get the impression that it would easily be filler on a Pharrell release.

There is clearly talent here, but while Hucknall singing about Stars made them seem even more romantic, when Daley sings about them shining for you, you realise that it happens all the time and they aren’t that special. Perhaps a brand new collection that isn’t pulled from two year’s worth of previous releases will help him establish Daley against the Newmans and Sam Smiths.

Days & Nights is set for release on Monday, 10th February. Hit the iTunes link below to download: