PERHAPS one of the quirkiest measures of an artist’s success is the number of tribute acts trading on the artistry of another.

Of course there are a million ABBA and Michael Jackson acts, but without searching too far, Michael Bublé lookalikes manage to scratch a decent living. Bizarrely, many believe that Bublé himself has made a career of playing tribute to the music of the Rat Pack.

Surprisingly on his sixth studio album, Bublé still feels the need to regurgitate Dean Martin’s Nevertheless (I’m In Love With You) and a trio of Sinatra songs, including You Make Me Feel So Young and Something Stupid, for which he is joined by Reese Witherspoon.

Slightly more interesting are the big band arrangements of the Bee Gees’ To Love Somebody, Smokey Robinson’s Who’s Loving You, Berry Gordy’s To Be Loved and a rather fun cover of You’ve Got A Friend In Me, Randy Newman’s modern Toy Story classic.

As expected, these are well-executed covers, but nothing really stretches the listener, as if these were colour-by-number crowd pleasers.

Far more interesting are the four original compositions. Although Bublé the writer may not be prolific, his songs are invariably strong and memorable.

Fellow Canadian Bryan Adams contributes to one of them, After All. However, It’s A Beautiful Day is by far the strongest song on the set, and this song alone will sit comfortably on Bublé’s inevitable greatest hits package.

To Be Loved will be very well received by Bublé’s fans and will no doubt give inspiration to his band of wannabe impersonators.