BILLY Ocean is the absolute King of the Comeback. Many a fallow year can come and go, and then unexpectedly, he's back at the top of the charts with a credible and totally fabulous 45.

Billy’s tremendous cover of A Simple Game, so richly infused with Northern Soul angst, is the perfect hit single. However, Mr Ocean’s work has always been rather hit or miss. For as magnificent as his Four Tops cover may be, his interpretations of A Change Is Gonna Come, No Woman No Cry and Having A Party have a distinct air of Cabaret Classic, and the least said about his rendition of Cry Me A River the better.

This double set CD of a dozen unpredictable new covers is accompanied by a 19-track retrospective of greatest hits. Fortunately, this mostly does gather Billy Ocean at his best, but demonstrates again that for every gem, such as the glorious Caribbean Queen and the infectious Love Really Hurts Without You, Ocean’s material can be either Technicolor-magnificent or mundane as crayon by numbers.