I'm worried now. I've just read the one sheet from the PR company that sent in this EP from Richard Emberstone. It actually mentions the word 'eclectic'. No PR company actually knows what the word means and they generally don't use it until they have passed the four cups of coffee mark and still can't think of something to say.
Richard Emberstone is British but you'd never guess it. He sounds American and delivers his songs in the best urban tradition. Sounding smoother than Dairylea cheese, he casually strolls through the five songs on this EP without ever threatening to break sweat. The songs seem to have come from a song writing by numbers kit for it isn't the first time (even on this EP) that we find out that love is hard. Probably not as hard as writing a memorable song though as only "Amazing Love" stands out here and it had the most ridiculous rap break you're likely to hear this year. Maybe that was the eclectic bit?
Listening to this EP got me to wondering how black music in this country (and in the USA for that matter) ended up going down this squeaky clean musical dead end. I reckon that I've found the culprit. Way back in the eighties, the revered Def Jam label had a dalliance with soul with the likes of Oran "Juice" Jones amongst others. The start of the slippery slope, without a doubt.