Passenger - Table For One

If you believe what you read, indie-pop is full of 'gifted' young songwriters at the moment. That's usually a byword for Blunt-tastic levels of saccharine schlock, and Passenger, fronted by 'gifted 23-year-old', Mike Rosenberg, are no exception. 'Table For One' is an observational study of middle-aged, pub-stool-dwelling loneliness that aims for Simon & Garfunkel-style wistfulness but is in fact a hopelessly clichéd, uninsightful piddle of cringingly-MOR indie-lite. If young Rosenberg likes going around inhabiting characters, fine, but he lacks the lyrical deftness to translate it into the next timeless folk ballad. [Nick Mitchell]