THERE has been a buzz, a polite sort of buzz, around Michael Kiwanuka for a while. And now that his debut album has arrived, it carries a different kind of buzzing, thanks appropriately enough to the studio work by Paul Butler, from the Bees, who is responsible for the lovingly created retro sound.

Kiwanuka, a 24-year-old Londoner whose parents came from Uganda, was the winner of the BBC sound of 2012 poll, an unlikely accolade in a sense for a performer who so clearly sounds as if he belongs in a fuzzy, folky, soul-shot past, and not the present.

Opening track Tell Me A Tale is gorgeous and defiant, borne on a flutter of flutes: here, the album seems to state, is someone new and different. Well, up to a point.

There are some lovely highlights here, including the title track, which starts out as a standard old rhythm and blues song, then switches mood with a shuffle of drumsticks. At these moments, when the music arrives through a pleasing haze, Kiwanuka does indeed sound different and exciting.

Sadly, he doesn’t maintain this standard, and while there is not a bad song on here, after a while the numbers blend into each other, like so much tasteful musical wallpaper, and Kiwanuka’s voice sounds too relaxed and unstressed: a catch of tension, a moment of suspense before a note is hit – that’s what is missing.

The singer cites Bill Withers as an influence, which is fair enough, although to these ears the soulful somnolence of Terry Callier is called to mind, which is mostly a compliment.