To Be Frank

Wounded - The catchiest track and first single,sounds worryingly like a Ricky Martin song but still somehow manages to be great ! 8/10

Get Up - One of Nik's best ever song's.Great chorus. 10/10

Die Laughing - The lyrics are very funny. 8/10

Jane Doe - The 'loudest' track on track on the album.Great guitar and vocals. 9/10

How Sad - Low key,moody song with singalong chorus. 8/10

Take Me To The Church - This my least favourite track, just a little too mushy ! 7/10

Hello World - Brilliant,great lyrics again and a terrific chorus. 9/10

Already - Ditto ! 9/10

One Day - The best song on the CD.Sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack to some epic movie! 10/10

All Is Fair - Witty lyrics,made me laugh the first time i heard it. 8/10

Show Them What Your Made Of - Just vocals,acoustic guitar and strings.It ends the record perfectly. 9/10

It's a real crime this music won't be heard by more people and thats my motivation in writing a review ( I'm normally too lazy to bother ! ), if you are in two minds about buying it .. do it !

Nik's previous album "15 Minutes" was excellent, but also felt somewhat generic and mainstream - its excellence was not from doing something different, but from doing it well. "To Be Frank", however, is both well written and original, and has quickly become one of my favourite albums.

I would recommend this album to anybody, whether or not they are a Nik Kershaw fan. This album really has nothing to do with his 80's music except, perhaps, the quality, and the breadth of styles means there's something for most people on it.

It's something of a sad indictment of today's music industry that this album wasn't more popular - it seems that "well crafted" and "popular" are mutually exclusive. Choose the former - buy this album.

This makes up a crescendo of final tracks joining one day (a mid tempo track exploring the adage that the grass in no more greener on the other side) and all is fair as a coup de grace to the album. The three are as alike as chalk and cheese but each one shows off the reason why Nik is one of the best songwriters there is. The tunes, while being inventive and thoughtful, are simple and easily remembered. The arrangement and production is considered and cumulative: no two parts of the song are identical, to every verse and chorus there is something added to reward continued play. The musical performance is tight and well executed. Ask any guitarist and he'll tell you that Nik finds unusual and original chord changes that make his songs that much better.

There are Latin vibes here (the wonderfully buoyant wounded, released ahead of time in late Spring when it should have been a Summer smash), humour in abundance (as Nik berates his alter ego Frank in die laughing) and, in get up, subject matter that is dear to a majority of us who hate the mornings and curse the end of sleep.

In all it's an inventive, guitar lead fair. Lyrically incisive, musically refreshing and essentially brilliant. Yet, good as it sounds, poor sales and a less than emphatic reception have caused this talented songwriter to hang up his microphone again and concentrate on producing other artist's work. I think this is a travesty when you consider the 'songs' that seem to grace the top 40 at the moment. Do yourself and the music community a favour and buy this album. You won't be disappointed.