THE third solo album from the Super Furry Animals lead singer is pretty much business as usual. A consistently entertaining mix of easy-listening Bacharach-esque pop, Rhys’s low, relaxed voice still has the charm of Rings Around The World, but on the closing Rubble Rubble he can’t help but sound a little bored.

Elsewhere, Honey All Over echoes pleasantly of Itchycoo Park, while Sensations In The Dark uses horns and samba piano to cheery effect.

It was Rhys’s decision that he was of an age to “buy a suit and record an album of piano ballads” that created Hotel Shampoo, but even after repeat listenings, it seems his ‘coming-of-age’ hasn’t drastically advanced his work from the SFA’s turn of the century heyday.

Specifically, Conservation Conversation contains the kind of juvenile rhyme scheme that, while occasionally charming, does little to endear the listener to an otherwise bland song.

However, it’s still an entertaining album, especially Space Dust #2, a beautifully bittersweet duet with breathy Swedish vocalist El Perro Del Mar, which takes in both sides of a one-night stand at a science conference.

Also, as word of mouth spreads, don’t be surprised to hear the catchy riff of Christopher Columbus popping up on quirky adverts and television shows.

Fittingly, many of the album’s 12 tracks wouldn’t be out of place in the background of a hotel lobby or elevator, making Hotel Shampoo a universally enjoyable, if largely forgettable, album.