Phil Celia? Didn’t he do a couple of jazz style albums featuring the songs of Sinatra a couple of years back? (indeed he did – Ed) If it is the same guy – and it does sound like him too – then I am at a loss to explain this album. Perhaps the result of some midlife crisis, he attempts to take us on a sentimental, almost saccharine, journey back to the streets of Brooklyn from whence he came.
All the usual suspects are present in the lyrics - first love, nuns etc etc but sadly missing is any hint of a reason why anybody (other than Mr Celia) would want to return to the streets of Brooklyn. The songs tend towards dullness though they do have a faintly amusing tendency to run out of words long before they run out of music. Rather more worrying, however, is that Mr Celia shows no sense of style whatsoever in performing his own songs.
Another singer songwriter attempting to hide self indulgence behind sentimentality? It certainly looks that way.
Available from CD Baby