FAME is a fickle and demanding mistress. McRae's miserable debut was nominated for a Mercury Award, despite that very real despair on show.

Since then, he has produced more of the same, keeping his fan-base largely intact, but is now clearly seeking the next step in popularity and escape his reputation as a purveyor of doom.

King Of Cards is deliberately more upbeat, with straightforward and accessible arrangements.

It sits squarely in Coldplay territory and is hard to dislike, or to love.

With only a couple of exceptions (On And On and The Ballad Of Amelia Earhart), King Of Cards represents a low point in McRae's songwriting, with bland subjects and lazy rhymes.

The sound of the city reverberates throughout, but as a story teller he is too detached, and even his trademark voice is more reedy than affecting.